Business Insider co-founder and editor on chief Henry Blodget replies to a USA Today column by Michael Wolff that stated the website has had trouble finding a buyer by writing that he’s enjoying what he’s doing and wouldn’t sell for $100 million.
Blodget writes, “First, we now have more than 125 people on the team and 1-2 million readers a day (30+ million a month), which would have been inconceivable back in our loading-dock days. Last month, this readership made us the third biggest digital business news publication, behind only the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. (We now have more readers each month than Bloomberg.com, BusinessWeek.com, CNBC.com, the FT, the Economist, and many other awesome publications. That’s pretty cool!)
“Second, I have come to understand that great media brands take decades to build, not a few years. The other 8 big business publications, for example, have been around for a combined 737 years. CNN launched in 1981, and it was at least a decade before it really went mainstream. And it was 16 or 17 years before Ted Turner finally sold it to Time Warner.
“Third, as I suspected 6 years ago, successful digital journalism really is different — as different from print and broadcast journalism as print and broadcast are from each other. To build a successful digital journalism business, you have to build a native digital newsroom, native digital distribution, a native digital business model, and a native digital cost structure. And building those things isn’t as easy as it may seem.
“(Think about the NYT suddenly trying to launch a cable news network, and you get the idea. The New York Times is amazing at print. And TV networks are amazing at TV. But digital is different, and you can’t just shove square print and broadcast pegs in round digital holes.)
“I love my job and am in no hurry to stop doing it. And I’m proud as hell of our team. And I really do think that this is a golden age for journalism and that we’re only in the early innings of what good digital news companies like Business Insider can become.”
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