Business Insider Australia to close in reported ‘global strategic decision’
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning, Business Insider Australia is set to close, following the decision from the parent company to wind up the local publishing licence, currently with Nine.
After an 11-year “exclusive representative” deal with Nine, and formerly Allure Media (Fairfax), the licensing deal with the publisher, Insider Inc will change in March.
A Nine spokesperson told Mumbrella that Pedestrian Group, which currently houses Business Insider Australia, and Insider are “pursuing a commercial arrangement” that would see Nine continue to commercialise its inventory in the local market and “across Insider more broadly”.
“We look forward to working with our valued partners at Insider Inc in this new capacity.”
Mumbrella understands that the result of the “global-led decision”, it comes at the cost of three local editorial staff.
Nine said that it is working to find roles within Pedestrian Group “and the wider Nine group” that suits their talents.
Following a rebranding of Business Insider to Insider globally in 2021, the dedicated Business Insider Australia website and team will cease to exist.
As a result, business coverage, including broad coverage of the Asian and Australian markets, will be directed through Insider’s APAC bureau, based in Singapore.
The SMH reported that according to “industry sources familiar with the decision” speaking anonymously, the move is also set to be implemented across other markets where Insider is present.
Pearman Media’s Steve Allen told Mumbrella that the move is “completely logical”, and that Nine’s existing businesses do more on business here and overseas “than Insider will ever do”.
He said that the content reproduced for the local site was more so a “duplication without the same depth”, and suggested that Nine will be “better resourced now if they want to put effort into business reporting within Pedestrian” than they ever did via its contract with Insider.
On the history of global outlets pulling local coverage, Allen said that whilst people are interested in what is happening overseas, “they’re far more interested in what is happening locally, and Nine has 100 times the resources than Insider would for Australian information”.
“So it’s a slam dunk in our view”, he continued.
Shortly following the merger of Nine and Fairfax Media, former editor-in-chief and publisher of Business Insider, Paul Colgan stepped down after six years. The merger saw Allure Media, the parent company of Business Insider, merge with Pedestrian.
Nine decided to merge the two businesses after the acquisition of Fairfax Media, which was followed by the departure of Allure Media CEO Jason Scott, alongside a number of further redundancies.
Insider Inc is owned by German digital publisher Axel Springer.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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