Business Insider has seen its subscriber base decrease each of the past three years, dropping about 27% between the end of 2022 and the end of 2025, according to a report in Status.
The Axel Springer-owned business and tech-focused publication finished 2022 with about 185,000 paid subscribers, according to Status. But as the publication went through a series of changes — the installation of Barbara Peng as CEO in 2023 and the appointment of Wall Street Journal veteran Jamie Heller as editor-in-chief in 2024, among others — its subscriber count continued to drop.
The publication ended 2023 with about 160,000 paid subscribers, a roughly 14% decline from 2022. In 2024, it finished with roughly 150,000 subscribers, about a 6% drop. Last year, it ended the year with about 135,000 paid subscribers, a roughly 10% drop.
The publication, which rebranded from Insider back to Business Insider in 2023, has scaled back its newsroom, laying off 21% of staff last year, its third consecutive year of job cuts. In January, it’s chief revenue officer and global head of sales exited.
A Business Insider spokesperson told TheWrap that the publication has reshaped its editorial strategy and paywall over the last three years, which has produced “a more defined and engaged core audience.” It has also moved away from aggregation, and about 80% of its content is exclusives, scoops and original reporting, they said.
“We expected volatility in subscriptions as we made these changes, but we have a diversified revenue model,” the spokesperson said. “We are building a resilient business for the long term based on original journalism that our audience can’t get anywhere else.”
The company in January also made Lars Kahl, who worked on subscriptions at Politico and the Free Press, its senior vice president of subscriptions, strategy and operations.
