Categories: OLD Media Moves

From Wall Street outcast to business journalism success story

Matthew Garrahan of The Financial Times writes about Business Insider co-founder and editor in chief Henry Blodget in the wake of the sale of a majority stake in the business news website to Axel Springer for $343 million.

Garrahan writes, “The size of Mr Blodget’s stake is unclear yet as one of Business Insider’s three founders, he is due a hefty payday. He is not planning to go elsewhere to enjoy his spoils, though, having signed a long-term contract with Axel Springer, the company’s new owner. He will stay with the company ‘indefinitely’ as chief executive and editor.

“Business Insider has built a large audience of readers, launching sites in multiple international markets, diversifying into technology coverage and starting a paid-subscription service.

“As editor, Mr Blodget shaped its quick-fire, irreverent style. He started his working life as a journalist but it was another industry that propelled him to notoriety, rising to prominence as a securities analyst during the dotcom boom of the late-1990s and riding a wave of bull market enthusiasm for technology stocks.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.