Henry Blodget’s financial media empire

Michelle Celarier writes for Institutional Investor about former analyst Henry Blodget, who founded Business Insider.

Celarier writes, “Now 13 years old, Business Insider — which, like Amazon, had a plethora of doubters along the way — was still in its relative infancy when Bezos came on board. But in 2015, the startup was sold to Axel Springer, one of Germany’s biggest media companies, which was keen to build a digital media presence in the U.S. With that backing, and Blodget at its helm, Business Insider has ramped up to be one of the most vibrant — and popular — media companies in the world: By December 2018, it had more than 98 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S., ranking second behind CNN in the Comscore general-news category, according to Business Insider. That year, Business Insider hit $100 million in annual revenues and turned a profit, Axel Springer reported.

“With the media world now in turmoil, Blodget’s sale of Business Insider to Axel Springer looks like sheer genius — or at least serendipity. Buffeted by both secular business trends and immediate pandemic-related pressures, venture-capital-backed digital peers like BuzzFeed and Vox Media are laying off employees, tabloid stalwarts like the New York Post have dismissed veteran reporters, and even the future of storied publishing empire Condé Nast is uncertain.

“There are no layoffs at Business Insider, which is now part of a larger site called simply Insider — a nod to a new expansion of its reporting focus beyond the business world. In fact, Insider is hiring: More than 30 editorial job listings for the U.S. are currently posted on Insider Inc.’s website, as well as 11 internships and fellowships. And that does not include jobs in areas like its new reviews section, nor openings on the data and business side.”

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