In early 2015, Business Insider — the most-visited business new site in the United States — decided to try something unprecedented: Start a new website.
Launched in July 2015, Tech Insider was born to serve a rapidly growing share of the company’s readers who sought out fast, smart, and palatable coverage in tech, science, innovation, and culture.
I came aboard as one of four deputy editors in the site’s core leadership. In addition to influencing the brand’s overarching style, voice, and editorial direction, I oversaw science coverage and led a team of eight at its largest. My responsibilities included day-to-day management; talent recruitment and hiring; feature planning and editing; daily news assigning and editing; front page editing; video script writing and editing; graphics and illustration coordination; weekend coverage and editing; social media promotion, distribution, and strategy; sold editorial program development; and more.
With my team’s help, Tech Insider — in less than one year — grew from zero readers to more than 15 million a month, zero Facebook likes to more than 6 million fans, and zero Twitter followers to more than 50,000. The science-themed videos my team helped produce also consistently broke records across multiple platforms, helping power more than 500 million video views per month close to the site’s first anniversary.
Although Tech Insider’s staff was absorbed back into Business in August 2016, some of its social media properties (and dedicated audiences) live on as a complement to Business Insider’s more than 80 million monthly readers.