Rieder: 'Business Insider' goes long on journalism
Henry Blodget, Business Insider's CEO and editor-in-chief(Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)
Story Highlights
- Former 'New York Observer' editor Aaron Gell will oversee the narrative venture
- 'Business Insider' drew positive reviews for its ambitious profile of Yahoo's Marissa Mayer
- CEO Henry Blodget sees a market for long-form articles in the digital space
One of the most intriguing aspects of the evolution of digital journalism is watching sites that spend much of their energy chasing clickbait augment their menus with serious journalism.
That's been the case at The Huffington Post, which has a Pulitzer to show for its enterprise reporting[1], and BuzzFeed, which has added political coverage[2], long-form narratives, foreign bureaus and now investigative reporting to its off-the wall collection of lists and charticles.
Now Business Insider[3], a much-visited site that covers business and tech with what might be called a BuzzFeedian flair, is making a similar foray. It's going into the long-form journalism business and has hired an experienced magazine editor to spearhead the operation[4].
There was once a day when it was accepted wisdom that people would not read long stories online, that this was purely the domain of the short attention span. But like the notion that people wouldn't pay for digital journalism, that tenet has gone the way of the floppy disk and Blockbuster[5].
There are a couple of reasons for the welcome return of narrative. People are much more comfortable reading longer pieces on tablets and mobile apps than they were on desktops. And the rise of social media created an ideal way for building an audience. A finely crafted magazine-style piece is just the thing many people want to share with friends.
I asked Henry Blodget, Business Insider's CEO and editor-in-chief, about the decision to take his website into the expensive, labor-intensive but oh-so-rewarding long-form game.
"Digital readers love many different kinds of stories, from posts to photos to videos to more traditional long-form features," he responded via e-mail. "As we've grown, we've been able to produce more of all of these, and we're eager to do more of the latter."
No doubt one precipitating factor was the positive response to an ambitious profile of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer[6] by Nicholas Carlson, which ran on Business Insider in August. The piece put the "long" in long read — it clocked in at over 21,000 words, which is a lot of words, indeed. And it was worth every one of them. I read the piece from beginning to end on my iPhone.
Business Insider has provided a much-needed new incarnation for Blodget, once a star Wall Street analyst who in 2003 agreed to a settlement banning him from the securities industry[7] in the wake of charges that he was pushing stocks in public while badmouthing them in private.
A clear sign of redemption: In April, he and Business Insider got the full New Yorker profile treatment[8] from media writer to the stars Ken Auletta.
To be sure, Business Insider would not remind you much of The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times. As I write this, the site's homepage leads with a piece on a pending construction boom in New York City but also includes such fare as "25 Secrets That Show That Duck Dynasty Could Be Totally Fake" and "This Map Shows The Best Sandwich From Every State."
But it has, as the great former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee liked to say, "nothing but readers." According to Google Analytics, the site attracts 24 million unique visitors each month.
Like many websites, Business Insider has found profits elusive — it lost $3 million last year — but Blodget says it will be in the black this quarter.
Charged with bringing long-form wonderfulness to this farrago is Aaron Gell, former editor in chief of The New York Observer who also did stints at Radar and W. For Gell, this seemed like an ideal next step.
"I heard BI was making real commitment to publishing more long-form articles," he wrote via e-mail, "and I'd been looking for a route back into journalism after a brief hiatus consulting for a start-up, so I sent over a résumé."
As for his new mission, he adds, "Like most everyone else in our business, I have a passion for long-form journalism, and going after deeper, more compelling narratives seemed like a natural evolution for BI, which has been on fire as a news operation for a while now."
And he feels strongly that narrative has a vital role to play in the digital space. "The Internet has brought us a deluge of information — who, what, when — but if you really want to enhance people's understanding, there's no substitute for a powerful narrative that carries a reader along, teases out the subtleties of a story and hopefully gets at a larger truth."
While he might make some hires down the road, Gell, who starts work Nov. 18, says at first he'll be relying on freelancers and the occasional book excerpt.
Blodget says he's prepared to invest serious money in long-form. Here's hoping it pays off in lots of rich reading.
References
- ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/huffington-post-pulitzer-prize-2012_n_1429169.html (www.huffingtonpost.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/rieder/2013/10/23/buzzfeed-plunges-into-investigative-reporting/3169829/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.businessinsider.com/ (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2013/11/8535538/business-insider-brings-aaron-gell-edit-long-form-features (www.capitalnewyork.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2013/11/06/blockbuster-closing/3456271/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayer-biography-2013-8 (www.businessinsider.com)
- ^ http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/factsheet.htm (www.sec.gov)
- ^ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/08/130408fa_fact_auletta (www.newyorker.com)