Categories: OLD Media Moves

The predominantly white staff at Business Insider

Brendan James of International Business Times examined the demographic makeup of many media organizations and found Business Insider lagging behind many others.

James writes, “Other outlets were less forthcoming: When asked for internal exact numbers from Henry Blodget’s sprawling content factory Business Insider, Managing Editor Jess Lieberman did not address the question and instead gave a terse statement.

“‘Thanks for asking. Business Insider has a highly diverse editorial team,’ Lieberman replied to an initial email. To a follow up question asking again for the numbers, she responded: ‘That’s our statement.’

“Business Insider’s masthead, which Lieberman told IBTimes is up-to-date, shows an editorial staff of over 200 that is roughly 90 percent white, 5 percent black and 5 percent Asian.

“That’s a showing of around 10 percent non-white staff, below the (fairly low) average of the newspaper industry. It’s far behind the New York Times and USA Today at 19 percent, or New York Daily News at 18 percent.”

Read more here.

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.