Profits secondary to growth at Business Insider

Brian Morrissey of Digiday spoke with Business Insider chief operating officer Julie Hansen about the website’s operations.

Here is an excerpt:

Profits are secondary to growth.
Business Insider, which closed a $25 million funding round in January, could be profitable, Hansen recently said, but that’s not the immediate goal. In fact, it expects “significant” losses this year in the service of growth.

“To come from running profitable businesses and an unprofitable business is weird and awkward, even though you know it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “Emotionally, we might want to be profitable some days, but the business plan absolutely calls for significant unprofitability this year.”

BI’s going big with its new (as yet unnamed) consumer tech site.
Later this year, BI plans to launch a consumer technology site. In fact, it has already hired 25 journalists to staff it, with their own newsroom at BI’s office in New York City. Another 25, spread across business-side departments, are also working on the site.

Read more here.