The digital media company Business Insider laid off 21% of its staff on Thursday, according to an internal memo from chief executive Barbara Peng obtained by ADWEEK.
The cuts will affect every department, although the publisher declined to share how many employees were affected.
“Since returning to our roots as Business Insider, we’ve been building toward something new,” Peng wrote. “This kind of transformation takes time—and it requires tough decisions along the way.”
In the note, Peng cited declines in traffic as one of the primary reasons for the reduction in headcount. Around 70% of Business Insider’s business relied on online traffic, and the restructure is meant to better position the publisher to thrive in an environment with fewer readers.
As part of the restructure, the publisher is also making a series of key shifts to its business.
It is scaling back on categories that “once performed well on other platforms but no longer drive meaningful readership” or are not areas where Business Insider can lead, according to the memo. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on which coverage areas are affected.
The Axel Springer-owned outlet is also “exiting the majority of our commerce business,” citing its reliance on search traffic, although it will maintain a few select verticals.
Finally, it is launching BI Live, a new live events journalism business. Business Insider has not historically had a robust experiential arm, even as other media organizations have flocked to that line of business in recent years.
In addition to shifting traffic patterns, Peng also cited artificial intelligence as a key factor in the restructuring.
Over 70% of Business Insider employees are already using its enterprise ChatGPT product regularly, according to the memo. The productivity gains being unlocked by the technology have spurred the publisher to reevaluate its labor needs, allowing it to operate more efficiently with fewer resources.
“Change like this isn’t easy,” Peng wrote. “But Business Insider was born in a time of disruption—when the smartphone was reshaping how people consumed news. We thrived by taking risks and building something new.”
Read the full memo below:
Team,
Today we’re making significant organizational changes that are part of the strategy we set in motion a year and a half ago: to be the essential source of business, tech, and innovation journalism for an audience determined to succeed and unafraid to challenge convention to do it.
Since returning to our roots as Business Insider, we’ve been building toward something new. This kind of transformation takes time — and it requires tough decisions along the way.
What happens today
We are reducing the size of our organization, a move that will impact about 21% of our colleagues and touch every department.