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Business Insider " is shortening its name to "Insider ." - We'll continue to expand our business and tech journalism, along with many other topics.
Hello, everyone!
I wanted to let you know that we're more fully integrating "Business Insider" with our broader publication "Insider." In the process, we're shortening Business Insider's name to Insider.
As you can see, we've already changed this at the top of the page.
Beyond what you see, what does this mean?
First, it doesn't mean that we're less committed to our business and tech journalism. On the contrary, we're going to continue to expand our business and tech coverage over the next few years, in addition to investing in other areas.
It just means that we'll refer to our company and publication as "Insider," instead of "Business Insider" or "BI." Our site will present Business Insider as the business section of Insider. The default email addresses of our journalists and team-members will change to "@insider.com," though the "@businessinsider.com" and all other aliases will continue to work. We will continue to use the Business Insider name in some places - some social media feeds, international editions, and shows and emails, for example - but the broader publication will be called Insider.
Why are we doing this?
In short, because "Insider" is a shorter and simpler name. And because we believe we can better serve you and achieve our long-term vision with a single name rather than two. (In case you hadn't noticed, we have also had a broader publication called "Insider" for the past several years.)
Many of you already call us "Insider." It's a great fit for our broader plans, which extend beyond business journalism. It's simple. It's easy to say and type. It's broad and flexible. Most importantly, it fully encompasses the breadth, depth, and scale of what we want to become.
In the next few years, Insider will also become even less of a traditional "one size fits all" publication and more of a next-generation digital journalism service, with different feeds and stories for different people. For business and tech executives, the "Insider feed" will be heavy on business and tech stories. For entertainment fans, it will include a lot of entertainment stories. And so on.
If the name Insider had been available when we launched 14 years ago as a New York-focused tech blog, we would have started with Insider. But it wasn't. So we launched as Silicon Alley Insider. Two years later, when our coverage and ambitions had broadened to include finance, markets, and other industries, we became Business Insider. Now, another decade later, we're completing the transition to Insider.
Name changes can be awkward and confusing. They can also be sad. Friends told me for years that they missed "SAI" and "Alley Insider," for example, and I, too, fondly remember those days. Some of you will likely continue to call us "Business Insider" or "BI" for a while. You are of course welcome to do that.
But!
We love the name Insider, and we know a lot of you love it, too. We know because we've been building "Insider" as a broader publication for years. We have a passionate global audience of hundreds of millions of people who know us only as Insider. Now, with all of our resources and creativity behind it, we will continue to build Insider into one of the most loved and influential journalism brands in the world.
In case you want to know more, I've included a Q&A below.
Thank you as ever for reading, watching, listening, and partnering with us. We would not be here without you.
Henry Blodget
CEO and Co-Founder
Q&A
Why not continue to have two publications - Business Insider and Insider? It seems like that's working fine.
Yes, it's working well. But it's also occasionally leading to confusion - such as questions about where one publication begins and the other ends, whether and how the publications are related, what the respective missions are, etc. By focusing our resources on one publication, we have more opportunity to make it truly great.
Other publishers have lots of publications.
Yes! Some publishers have portfolios (Condé Nast, Vox). Some have one big publication (New York Times, Washington Post). And some have one big one and smaller specialty ones (such as BuzzFeed and Tasty). There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. Three years ago, for several reasons, we concluded that the "one big publication" approach would be best for us. We believe the digital medium is well-suited to this approach, as companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, The New York Times, and others make clear.
Does this mean business journalism is becoming less important to us?
No! Our editorial strategy is the same. We will keep investing heavily in our business, tech, and other "Business Insider" sections. These topics are extremely important for our audience and clients, and we're still in the early stages of developing them. In fact, a large percentage of the editorial hiring we're planning for the next few years will be in tech, finance, and other business verticals.
What should I tell people who love Business Insider but haven't heard of Insider?
Tell them we've changed Business Insider's name to Insider! It's the same great publication, now with a shorter and more convenient name. It's also now a publication in which they can now find an even broader range of stories they might love. (There's more to life than business.) Also tell them they can call us whatever they want, as long as they read and watch and partner with us. ;-)
What will change?
Most instances of "Business Insider" and the "Business Insider" logo will become "Insider." Our default email addresses will change to @insider.com. Our app will be called Insider. Our subscribers will subscribe to Insider, even if they continue to read primarily business, tech, and other "Business Insider" stories. The names of our syndicated feeds may change. The watermark on most of our videos will become "Insider." We will continue to use the Business Insider name in some instances, such as on some social feeds and focused publications and shows like Business Insider Today. Some of our international editions will also remain Business Insider. Our company's legal name will remain "Insider, Inc.," but we'll refer to ourselves as Insider.
What about our home pages?
The current Business Insider home page will remain the same: A hand-curated selection of stories for our business audience. The Insider.com home page, meanwhile, will reflect the full scope of our coverage. Eventually, it will also begin to reflect our product and technology vision: More innovative and dynamic, a special Insider experience for each of us.
When will we make these changes?
We'll make most of them in the early part of this year. They'll be rolling, not all at once. Some tech changes, such as the combination of separate instances of our publishing system, Viking, may take longer.
Will we still use the businessinsider.com URL?
Yes! Most of our Business Insider verticals will remain on businessinsider.com, as will our Business section home page. We will likely continue to migrate non-business verticals to insider.com, the way we did with Sports last year. Our site will incorporate both URLs, the same way it currently does.