Business Insider announces plan to lay off 8% of staff

Business Insider said Thursday that it was laying off 8% of its staff, the latest in a wave of sharp job cuts in the media industry this month.

Barbara Peng, Business Insider’s CEO, said in an internal note that the job cuts were part of a plan, announced late last year, to shift focus solely to news coverage of business, tech and innovation.

“We have already begun to refocus teams and invest in areas that drive outsize value for our core audience,” Peng wrote. “Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization.”

Peng added: “We’re committed to building an enduring and sustainable Business Insider for the coming years and beyond.”

In November, the company changed its name from Insider back to Business Insider, and its co-founder Henry Blodget stepped aside as CEO. At the time, the publication’s top editor, Nicholas Carlson, wrote that it was a “new era” for the company: “It’s now about recommitting to what we do best.”

A Business Insider spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on the specifics of the layoffs.

Business Insider previously laid off 10% of its staff in April, citing economic pressures. At the time, Business Insider had about 950 workers around the world.

Business Insider is owned by German publishing giant Axel Springer, which also owns Politico. It recently became embroiled in a dispute with billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman after it published an article saying his wife, Neri Oxman, a prominent academic and architect, had plagiarized in her dissertation.

After an internal review, Business Insider defended the article. “The process we went through to report, edit and review the stories was sound, as was the timing,” Peng said this month.

The American media industry is reeling from cutbacks in recent weeks: The Los Angeles Times laid off more than 20% of its newsroom, Sports Illustrated gutted it staff, Time magazine cut roles and The Washington Post announced that 240 workers had accepted buyout offers.

On Thursday, unionized workers at both The New York Daily News and Forbes walked off the job.