Carlson named global editor in chief of Business Insider

Business Insider founder Henry Blodget sent out the following on Monday morning:

Team,

I have an exciting promotion to announce.

But first, some background.

This year, our tenth, has been one of the best years in our history. I’ll have more details in our all-hands, but we have made great progress in our mission — serving our audience and clients and getting better every day. We have improved our journalism and storytelling. We have rebuilt our technology platforms and expanded our client services and creative capabilities. In a challenging period for the industry, we have also grown our editorial, sales, and technology teams and increased revenue.

As you know, throughout our history, we have launched many new initiatives. We generally launch these as stand-alone projects and later integrate them more closely. A few years ago, we expanded our video teams and subscription service and launched Business Insider UK, our consumer tech brand Tech Insider, and our lifestyle brand INSIDER. Happily, these projects have thrived alongside Business Insider. And one of our goals this year has been to continue to simplify and unify our organization by more tightly integrating them.

As the next step in this, I am pleased to announce that we are promoting Nicholas Carlson to Chief Content Officer and Global Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider, Inc.

Nich joined us 9 years ago, when we were a “tech blog” with a dozen staffers working out of the office of another startup. Those were lean years for digital journalism, but Nich had already demonstrating his creativity, tenacity, and drive. With a going rate for freelancers in the industry of only $12 per story, he had supported himself by writing 14 stories per day.

At Business Insider, Nich established himself as a leading tech journalist and our most productive investigative reporter. In those days, we had a “scoop jar” filled with $20 bills for the first exclusive of the day. The jar became Nich’s personal lunch fund.  In 2010, after two years of research and reporting, Nich published the first of many major tech industry investigations, revealing the full story about the controversial founding of Facebook. In 2013, as our Chief Correspondent, Nich devoted 10 months to researching and writing a 23,000-word profile of new Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. The next year, he expanded this story into a book, Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo,

In 2015, Nich raised his hand to be the founder and editor of our new lifestyle brand, INSIDER. Nich and his team pioneered new form of digital storytelling, social video, and quickly built a massive following. Two years later, INSIDER has grown into a global video and web powerhouse with 50+ million followers and 2+ billion monthly video views.

As global Editor-in-Chief, Nich will work closely with Executive Managing Editor Jessica Liebman to lead all of our editorial teams. He will continue working with INSIDER executive Editor Julie Zeveloff and Executive Producer Tony Manfred. He will continue to help our creative services team share our digital storytelling expertise with our clients. He will deepen our relationships with our distribution partners and help launch and guide new editorial initiatives. He will also take over my role as the Global Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider and work more closely with Business Insider US Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell, Business Insider UK and International Editor-in-Chief Jim Edwards, and Business Insider Executive Producer Justin Maiman.

Business Insider and INSIDER have different missions, and they will remain separate brands and teams. I will take the new title of Editorial Director. And I will of course keep my desk in our newsroom.

It is a privilege and pleasure to work with all of you. Please join me and our senior team in congratulating Nich.

Keep up the great work.

Henry