In a sweeping internal reorganization that underscores the ongoing upheaval in digital media, Business Insider announced on Thursday that it is laying off 21% of its workforce, a move impacting employees across all departments. The decision comes as part of a larger strategic shift to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) and reshape the organization into what leadership describes as a more innovative, efficient, and forward-looking news operation.
In an internal memo obtained by Fox News Digital, Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng confirmed the job cuts, calling it “a difficult day” for the company. The layoffs will affect over one-fifth of the entire staff, touching all departments from editorial to operations.
“We are reducing the size of our organization, a move that will impact about 21% of our colleagues and touch every department,” Peng wrote. “Our first priority is to provide clarity and support to those colleagues whose roles are being eliminated.”
While the exact number of employees affected has not been officially disclosed, Business Insider employs several hundred journalists and staff globally, meaning the layoffs could total more than 100 positions.
Pivoting to AI and Leaner Journalism
The job cuts are just one part of a broader organizational shift driven by emerging technology. According to Peng, Business Insider is now “fully embracing AI” as the central pillar of its operations going forward.
“In the past year, we’ve launched multiple AI-driven products to better serve our audience from gen-AI onsite search to our AI-powered paywall with new products set to launch in the coming months,” she noted.
The company is also using Enterprise ChatGPT, with 70% of the staff already incorporating it into their workflows. The goal is to reach 100% adoption, signaling that generative AI tools will become embedded in virtually every function, from content creation to analytics and customer engagement.
Peng also emphasized the potential of AI to streamline internal operations: “We are looking at how AI can boost operations across shared services, helping us scale and operate more efficiently.”
While AI will take center stage, Peng also reaffirmed the company’s commitment to “authoritative journalism.” Since the appointment of Jamie Heller as Editor-in-Chief in late 2023, the company has reportedly doubled the amount of original reporting it publishes.
“We’ve sharpened our standards and are shifting towards more reporting that is authoritative and matters deeply to the people who read it,” Peng wrote. Engagement metrics have also reportedly increased as the newsroom pivots toward more substantive, in-depth reporting.
Despite this renewed editorial focus, no department has been spared from the layoffs, prompting questions about how this vision of journalism will be executed with a significantly leaner staff.
Major Exit from Commerce Business and New Product Launches
In addition to the staff cuts, Peng confirmed that Business Insider will exit most of its Commerce business, citing its over-reliance on search engines. Only a few high-performing verticals in the commerce space will be maintained.
Simultaneously, the company is preparing to launch a new platform called BI Live, described as a space for promoting journalism and fostering direct connections with readers. Although details remain limited, the platform appears to be an effort to build more direct audience relationships in an era where third-party platforms like Google and Facebook offer diminishing returns.
In response to the layoffs, the Insider Union and The NewsGuild of New York released a joint statement sharply criticizing Axel Springer, the German media conglomerate that owns Business Insider.
“Axel Springer is a multi-billion dollar firm whose digital outlets and media businesses generate the majority of its revenue,” the statement read. “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 union’s criticism highlights growing tensions between newsroom labor forces and corporate ownership, especially as media outlets increasingly pursue automation and cost-cutting strategies that risk undermining journalistic integrity and job security.
Peng sought to frame the transition as part of Business Insider’s founding DNA. “Change like this isn’t easy,” she 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.”
It’s a sentiment many media executives have echoed in the age of AI and declining ad revenue but for laid-off staffers, it’s little comfort. The rapid shift from human-driven reporting to AI-powered infrastructure leaves both emotional and professional uncertainty in its wake.
As staff were instructed to discuss the changes in team meetings on Thursday morning, the full ramifications of the layoffs and AI overhaul remain to be seen. Will Business Insider be able to maintain journalistic standards with a smaller staff and greater reliance on AI? Can new platforms like BI Live carve out meaningful reader engagement in a crowded media space?
What’s clear is that Business Insider is betting heavily on automation and restructuring and it’s doing so at the cost of hundreds of livelihoods. For an outlet whose identity is tied to the future of work and innovation, its latest moves may signal not just a new chapter for the company, but a turning point for the digital media industry as a whole.
