Latest news with #BarbaraPeng
Belfast Telegraph
12 hours ago
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
Media firm with base in Belfast to slash more than fifth of its global workforce
The announcement of the job cuts was made by Barbara Peng, chief of Business Insider's parent company. She added: 'We're also proposing changes that impact our UK team, but the process is a bit different there; separate communication will follow. 'We are reducing the size of our organisation, a move that will impact about 21% of our colleagues and touch every department. 'This will be a difficult day, and our first priority is to provide clarity and support to those colleagues whose roles are being eliminated.' Ms Peng said only those employees impacted would receive an email that included details for a meeting with the 'people and culture team', who would talk them through next steps and answer any questions. She added that the media industry 'is at a crossroads'. She said: 'Business models are under pressure, distribution is unstable, and competition for attention is fiercer than ever. 'At the same time, there's a huge opportunity for companies who harness AI first. 'Our strategy is strong, but we don't have the luxury of time. 'The pace of change combined with the opportunity ahead demands bold, focused action — and it's our chance to lead the pack.' Gordon Lyons visited Insider Inc's New York headquarters in 2022 in his role as Economy Minister to announce the new Belfast base. At the time it employed more than 1,000 people, with 10 global editions in six languages. He said then: 'Insider is expanding its engineering resource and is now establishing a technology and product hub in Northern Ireland, with plans to initially recruit 50 roles by the end of June 2024. 'The roles will include data engineering, project management and IT support. 'This was a highly mobile project with a number of locations in the running. 'As part of Invest NI's engagement with the company to help win this project, I first met the senior team in March. 'I am delighted to be back with the team to make this announcement. 'Invest NI has done a great job helping to secure this project, the new jobs and over £2m investment in our local economy through annual salaries.' Henry Blodget, co-founder of Insider Inc, added: 'Our team there will be focused on improving our data products, subscription services, content syndication and testing automation processes — all of which are so important to our business.'
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Business Insider goes 'all-in on AI,' laying off 21% of staff
Business Insider has laid off about one fifth of its workforce, a sweeping round of cuts that affected every department and drew swift criticism from former employees and their union. The layoffs were announced in a staff memo from Business Insider chief executive Barbara Peng, who framed the cuts as part of a long-term transformation strategy to make the publication "the essential source of business, tech, and innovation journalism." "We are reducing the size of our organization, a move that will impact about 21% of our colleagues and touch every department," Peng wrote in the memo, which was sent to staff at the end of May. "While today's changes are what we must do to build the most enduring Business Insider, it doesn't make them any easier," she added. In addition to scaling back on coverage areas and "traffic-sensitive business," Business Insider plans to exit most of its Commerce verticals, which have long been a major revenue driver through affiliate links and search engine traffic. The company also announced a new push into live journalism events through a platform called BI Live and a sharp pivot toward artificial intelligence. "Over 70% of Business Insider employees are already using Enterprise ChatGPT regularly (our goal is 100%), and we're building prompt libraries and sharing everyday use cases that help us work faster, smarter, and better," Peng wrote. The focus on AI did not sit well with the Insider Union, a unit of the NewsGuild of New York, which sharply rebuked the layoffs in a statement Thursday. "To say this was tone-deaf to include in an email on layoffs would be an understatement," the union said, referring to Peng's emphasis on going "all-in on AI" in the same announcement. "Our position as a union is that no AI tool or technology should — or can — take the place of human beings." According to the union, about 20% of its members were affected by the layoffs. "The layoffs of our talented co-workers and union members is another example of Axel Springer's brazen pivot away from journalism toward greed," the statement read, referencing the German media conglomerate that owns Business Insider. "This is the third round of layoffs in as many years and it is unacceptable that union members and other talented coworkers are again paying the price for the strategic failures of Business Insider's leadership," the union added. Former staffers began sharing the news of their departures across social media. "I'm one of a big bunch of journalists who got laid off from Business Insider today. This sucks!" wrote Adam Rogers, a longtime journalist and former Wired editor, on Bluesky. "Which is to say, I wish the profession I've spent my life chasing wasn't in such chaos." Others pointed to the significant cuts within the Commerce team, a division once heavily focused on search-optimized shopping content. William Antonelli, a former full-time staffer laid off from Business Insider last year, wrote on X, "Today's layoffs destroyed the Commerce team, my only source of semi-stable freelance work." Though much of the media industry has heartily embraced commerce content over the last decade, Business Insider cited volatility in traffic and the decline of search-driven referral models as reasons to curtail its coverage. "We're reducing our overall company to a size where we can absorb that volatility," Peng wrote. In its place is BI Live, a new division centered on live journalism and in-person events that's aimed at connecting with its audience and expanding its experiential offerings. Peng ended her memo by urging employees to lean on one another for support during the transition, acknowledging the difficulty of the changes and the challenges ahead. The Insider Union, meanwhile, vowed to hold management accountable to the terms of its contract. "We expect Business Insider management to follow the layoff procedures outlined in our contract and treat our members with the respect they deserve," the union stated. Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Henry Blodget On Business Insider Layoffs: 'The Market Has Changed'
Following the announcement that Business Insider would lay off 21% of its staff, a move driven largely by Google's AI-centric search changes, I reached out to one particular Substack writer in an effort to get his take on the news: Henry Blodget, whose newly launched Regenerator newsletter aims to 'analyze the most important questions in tech and innovation.' The same Henry Blodget, of course, who co-founded Business Insider in 2007. 'I was very sad to see the BI news,' Blodget, who was the outlet's CEO from its founding through 2023, told me in an email. 'They're a great team and great people, and it's really tough.' Tough is exactly how Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng described the situation facing the Axel Springer–owned business and tech news site this week in a company-wide memo, detailing the third major round of layoffs in the last few years. In it, she outlined the harsh realities facing not only her company, but digital media at large. 'The media industry,' she notes at one point, 'is at a crossroads. Business models are under pressure, distribution is unstable, and competition for attention is fiercer than ever.' Seventy percent of Business Insider's output, the memo continues, 'has some degree of traffic sensitivity. We must be structured to endure extreme traffic drops outside of our control, so we're reducing our overall company to a size where we can absorb that volatility.' The company's union laid the blame for what happened at the feet of 'strategic failures' on the part of management, which is currently grappling (as are news companies pretty much across the board) with a turn of events that media writer Dylan Byers has described as a potential 'meteorite-level euthanizing event' for the industry: Essentially, Business Insider anchored its distribution strategy in large part around search and social. But now, as Big Tech pulls up the drawbridge on outbound traffic, news publishers that once relied on that steady stream of monetizable visitors are scrambling to rewrite their entire playbook. Google, in particular, has begun presenting AI-generated summaries directly on the search results page, allowing users to get information without ever leaving Google. It's a shift that, for publishers, threatens the very clicks that once sustained their business. Some observers see in Google's latest moves nothing short of an existential threat to the open web — and, by extension, to digital journalism. But Blodget, who led Business Insider when it was still a scrappy, voice-y upstart during the Web 2.0 era, isn't ready to concede that point just yet. 'Journalism is not screwed,' he stressed to me. 'People will always want to know what's happening and what it means — and we will always need great (human) journalists and publications to provide that. But the market has changed radically in the last five years. After 30 years of growth, digital media is now mature. Within it, distribution is getting disrupted — yes, Google, but also Facebook, Twitter, and others. And advertising is shifting to platforms.' So, what should news companies be betting on? 'Direct distribution and subscriptions. That model will support thousands of excellent publications, big and small. And audio and video are still growing as we move from TV/radio to digital.' In other words, he's imagining a media landscape populated by smaller, more focused, and often subscription-driven outlets — the kind built to serve a loyal following rather than chase clicks from the drive-by crowd. A vision that, in many ways, reflects the polar opposite of what Business Insider was in its early days, when it was aggregation-heavy, engineered for virality, and almost entirely free to read. As an aside: I actually caught a glimpse of the company back then first-hand, albeit very briefly. It was when Business Insider still operated out of the Gramercy Park building in Manhattan, and I met up with an editor there the day before Facebook went public in 2012 (my byline is also on a few freelanced posts from that period). When I stepped off the elevator and made my way into the newsroom, the first sound I heard was the telltale clop-clop of a ping-pong game. The newsroom itself reminded me of a financial trading floor, with a low hum of chatter emanating from writers who sat shoulder-to-shoulder behind rows of computers. I caught a glimpse of a very animated Blodget in what looked like a conference room, giving off the appearance of some sort of hyper-caffeinated analyst who's convinced he's spotted a market bubble. Three years after my visit, Axel Springer would pay $343 million to acquire most of Business Insider. For context, that's more than the mere quarter of a billion dollars that Jeff Bezos forked over for control of The Washington Post in 2013. To a wide-eyed visitor like myself, there was something that felt both rebellious and inevitable about Blodget's operation. Sort of like how some people today feel there's no stopping LLMs from making a generation of journalists obsolete. Blodget, for his part, isn't one of them — nor is Steven Zeitchik, a veteran of The Washington Post and LA Times who now writes the Substack-based Mind and Iron newsletter. You can argue that, to a certain extent, they're correct. Notwithstanding the retrenchment under way at publishers like Business Insider, there are still some journalistic tasks that machines can't do well — the workflows being too messy and unpredictable. 'As AI gobbles up from the bottom like some kind of Stephen King monster,' Zeitchik wrote on Friday, 'journalists can avoid its hungry teeth in two ways: by getting so good at the writing part an LLM can't touch you (but do you really want to get into a footrace with AI?) or hopping off that vine onto one it's not even climbing, like in-person or real-time reporting." In other words, maybe journalism can win its race against the machines by running in the opposite direction — back to the basics. Or, as one Redditor put it in a thread about the Business Insider layoffs: '…the real punk move today is rejecting the internet entirely. Ditching the algorithm, stepping off social media, and reclaiming reality. Because at this point, nothing's more radical than being human on purpose.'
Fox News
4 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Fox News AI Newsletter: Scammers can exploit your data from just 1 ChatGPT search
Welcome to Fox News' Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements. IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER:- Scammers can exploit your data from just one ChatGPT search- Business Insider embraces AI while laying off 21% of workforce- Nvidia, Dell partner with Trump admin to make next-gen supercomputer GUARD YOUR DATA: ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) have become amazing helpers for everyday tasks. Whether it's summarizing complex ideas, designing a birthday card or even planning your apartment's layout, you can get impressive results with just a simple prompt. NEWS BREAK: Business Insider announced Thursday that the company will be shrinking the size of its newsroom and making layoffs, impacting over a fifth of its staff. Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng said in an internal memo obtained by Fox News Digital that the company is "fully embracing AI," as 70% of the company's staff currently uses Enterprise ChatGPT, with a goal of 100%. HIGH TECH: Nvidia and Dell on Thursday announced a breakthrough supercomputer powered by artificial intelligence (AI) will launch next year to help drive research at the Department of Energy (DOE). SETTING THE PACE: Pace University uses AI and scannable QR codes to read graduates' names. A-'EYE' IN THE SKY: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently announced that artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to detect and address air traffic risks, following a slew of near-misses and fatal plane crashes across the country. 'PROFOUND TRANSFORMATION': Nvidia, a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, saw shares rise 3% in after-hours trading following the announcement. The earnings report showed that first-quarter net income was up 26% from a year ago at nearly $19 billion, with revenue rising to $44 billion, up 69% from last year. 'AGRI-FICIAL' INTELLIGENCE: John Deere is turning to artificial intelligence to help farmers address labor shortages and enable them to handle other tasks associated with their business. APPLE'S AI RECKONING': OpenAI has just made a move that's turning heads across the tech world. The company is acquiring io, the AI device startup founded by Jony Ive, for nearly $6.5 billion. This isn't your typical business deal. It's a collaboration between Sam Altman, who leads OpenAI, and the designer responsible for some of Apple's most iconic products, including the iPhone and Apple Watch. STANDING TALL AGAIN: For Caroline Laubach, being a Wandercraft test pilot is about more than just trying out new technology. It's about reclaiming a sense of freedom and connection that many wheelchair users miss. Laubach, a spinal stroke survivor and full-time wheelchair user, has played a key role in demonstrating the personal AI-powered prototype exoskeleton's development, and her experience highlights just how life-changing this device can be. BOT BLUNDER: Google's artificial intelligence chatbot is being slammed for "anti-American" claims about the supposed White supremacist origins of Memorial Day. FOLLOW FOX NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA FacebookInstagramYouTubeXLinkedIn SIGN UP FOR OUR OTHER NEWSLETTERS Fox News FirstFox News OpinionFox News LifestyleFox News Health DOWNLOAD OUR APPS Fox NewsFox BusinessFox WeatherFox SportsTubi WATCH FOX NEWS ONLINE STREAM FOX NATION Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future with Fox News here.
The Hindu
6 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Business Insider cuts 21% of workforce, memo shows
Business Insider is laying off about 21% of its workforce, an internal memo showed on Thursday, as the financial news outlet grapples with shrinking search traffic and the growing use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. The New York-based company joins several digital media companies in restructuring operations as consumers increasingly depend on artificial intelligence for news synopsis, which is eating into web traffic. In the memo, CEO Barbara Peng told staff the company now generates twice as much revenue for each website visit as it did two years ago, but 70% of its business still has some degree of traffic sensitivity. "We must be structured to endure extreme traffic drops outside of our control, so we're reducing our overall company to a size where we can absorb that volatility," Peng said in the memo seen by Reuters. The New York-based company is accelerating adoption of AI, with a majority of employees already utilizing Enterprise ChatGPT and several AI-driven products to enhance operations and reader experience, Peng said. The website is realigning its content strategy to concentrate on areas that attract high reader engagement, and is exiting the majority of its commerce business, Peng said. It is also launching a new events business called BI Live, Peng said, adding that it has already seen some demand and will continue to build the team. Earlier this year, Washington Post and Associated Press laid off 4% and 8% of their workforce respectively in a bid to cut costs and modernize operations.
