Business Insider CEO details post-layoff strategy
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Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng speaks at an Axios event in Cannes, France. Photo: Christine Wang/Axios
Business Insider's recent layoffs and changes were "very difficult" but necessary to put the business back on track, CEO Barbara Peng said at an Axios event at Cannes on Wednesday.
- "We have a responsibility to build a sustainable business. If we can't support ourselves, we actually can't do all the good journalism that we want to and really reach that potential," she said.
Why it matters: Publishers are reckoning with declining search traffic across the media industry and reinvesting as they prepare for potentially even greater disruption from AI.
What they're saying: "We had to let go of a lot of really talented people, and that's hard for an organization, but the reason we made these changes was because of our strategy," Peng said.
- "About a year and a half ago, I took us back to being Business Insider after we were Insider for many years and focused us back in on our core and our strengths and what people love about us, which is business, tech and innovation journalism," she said.
Catch up quick: BI laid off 21% of its staff last month as the organization goes "all-in on AI."
- In May, Peng said in a staff memo that BI has launched several AI-driven products, including onsite search and paywall technology.
- "This just in general is not new for Business Insider. We were born in the moment that the smartphone launched, and it was really a moment that we embraced. We were very curious. We found joy in it. We tried things. We were risk tolerant, and we're approaching this moment exactly the same," she told Axios on Wednesday.
Zoom in: Peng said BI has pulled back on areas that were sensitive to search traffic like its SEO- and Google-driven commerce business and has invested in new experiments like an AI-generated audio briefing.
- "You can imagine that this really opens up other times in the day, other audiences that wouldn't have had access to us," Peng said.
- Peng said BI's revenue will be more heavily weighted to subscription and events. Its audio briefing isn't yet monetized.
- "One of the things you have to think about especially with innovation and trying things is you kind of have to give a little bit of space for the product to launch and to take hold," Peng said. "If we can engage an audience, if we can bring them value, we can monetize it afterwards."
