- Business Insider laid off about 21% of staff in May 2025 to resize the company for a model heavily exposed to web-traffic swings.
- Management is going all-in on AI, with most employees already using Enterprise ChatGPT and new AI tools planned across search, paywalls, and workflows.
- BI is exiting most commerce and narrowing coverage to business, tech, and innovation to reduce dependence on search-driven traffic.
- The company is launching BI Live events to diversify revenue, even as per-visit revenue has risen while overall traffic sensitivity remains high.
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In late May 2025, Business Insider (BI), owned by Axel Springer SE, announced sweeping organizational changes rooted in a recognition that its existing business model—heavily dependent on search traffic and e-commerce (commerce verticals)—was increasingly unsustainable. Under CEO Barbara Peng, the company undertook layoffs affecting about 21% of staff across all departments, to reduce operational size to one capable of absorbing traffic volatility.
A core component of BI’s strategic repositioning is its accelerating embrace of artificial intelligence. More than 70% of employees are already using Enterprise ChatGPT regularly; new tools include generative AI site search, an AI-powered paywall, and strengthened automation across internal workflows. BI aims for 100% adoption among staff. This suggests an explicit decision to incorporate AI not just as a supporting tool, but as central to both content distribution and revenue generation.
Editorial priorities are being recalibrated: BI is exiting most of its commerce business, reducing categories which perform well on traffic but poorly on meaningful engagement or leadership potential. The editorial focus will shift toward business, tech, and innovation journalism, areas viewed as more aligned with BI’s core mission and likely to foster loyal, less traffic-sensitive readership.
Another pillar of the strategy is BI Live, a live journalism events business. This initiative is intended to diversify revenue beyond the digital distribution chain and deepen audience relationships. Events can also hedge against volatility in online traffic and ad markets by providing more stable, direct-revenue opportunities.
Strategically, BI’s move underscores several broader implications: first, digital media companies are under pressure to reconcile high traffic dependency with the rise of AI summarization and alternative discovery channels; second, labor and content trade-offs are gaining visibility—staff cuts and narrowed editorial scope raise questions about both the sustainability of output quality and the morale of remaining teams; third, audience monetization is shifting toward subscription, events, and direct engagement rather than pure ad models vulnerable to platform changes; finally, BI itself may emerge leaner and more focused—but must navigate risks tied to AI tool misalignment, overreliance on fewer beats, and potential regulatory and reputational backlash.
Open questions remain: how BI will measure and maintain content quality in this new AI-centric paradigm; what the financial contribution of BI Live and narrowed verticals will be relative to lost commerce revenue; whether layoffs and AI deployment will erode institutional knowledge or audience trust; and how BI’s strategy will fare amid broader regulatory and competitive pressures in media and AI.
Supporting Notes
- BI laid off about 21% of its staff across all departments in May 2025.
- CEO Barbara Peng stated “70% of our business has some degree of traffic sensitivity,” motivating the need for structural changes.
- BI is “going all-in on AI,” with over 70% of employees using Enterprise ChatGPT already and a goal of full adoption.
- Company is exiting most of its commerce business due to its reliance on search traffic, retaining only a few high-performing verticals.
- Editorial verticals are being narrowed to focus on business, tech, and innovation journalism.
- BI is launching BI Live, a new live journalism events business, to diversify revenue streams.
- Despite internal shifts, BI reportedly generates twice as much revenue per website visit now compared to two years ago, though remains heavily exposed to traffic fluctuations.
- The Insider Union criticized the layoffs, calling them a continuation of Axel Springer’s pivot away from journalism toward profit.