Employee Review
- Former Intern, less than 1 year★★★★★
This company is so wack it's laughable
Feb 27, 2019 - Intern in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
The only pro of working here is that you can say you are employed, even though every day there makes you question what cosmic entity you must have pissed off to get there. But I will say, the video team seems nice.
Cons
To sum up: so many excellent publications are experiencing falling outs/layoffs, from Mic to Buzzfeed to HuffPost, etc. Others are shutting down entirely. I can honestly say Business Insider/Insider Inc. is the ONLY publication that I 100% believe SHOULD have shut down in the place of all these others. I would not wish working here upon my worst enemy. "Read on" if you'd like to know why. To most everyone on the outside, Business Insider is a legit and well-known publication. On the inside, it is a dumpster fire of deception and exploitation. This company discourages unionizing. It gave its global editor-in-chief a check for $2000, while reducing it's full-time employees to hourly wages (with a spontaneous notification of this via email) to avoid having to pay them the legal minimum amount in New York. It has a gender pay gap problem that it denies. In your contracts, you must agree to never say anything bad about Insider while you work there. You're also not allowed to get a recommendation from any of your fellow employees or supervisors for future jobs. Any ideas you come up with at Insider that are not related to work are their property. Editorial higher ups selectively choose the schools they'll look at job applications from, so if you went to Syracuse or NYU (and you're a mildly attractive white woman), you're in luck. The company is largely made up of white, middle class-or-higher workers. The writers rooms are so white that any stories from a POC or non-cis perspective have to be sent out to freelancers. I overheard so many conversations from higher up editorial employees pathetically attempting to be inclusive, who clearly didn't know what they were talking about and were so misguided, you would find yourself trapped in a full-body cringe for the rest of the day. The culture of the office is akin to "Mean Girls," without Tina Fey's loveable sense of humor. They must have come up with the stereotype of rich white women being catty and passive aggressive from their observations of Insider employees. Interns are given "intern buddies," who are editorial workers that meet with them for monthly lunches and generally help them through their time at Insider. My intern buddy met with me once, then spent the rest of my internship ignoring me in the halls and being incredibly passive aggressive to the interns who worked directly under them. If you're a freelancer, the editor will decide whether or not they want to completely ignore you or take the minimal time it takes to actually respond. In the meantime, they'll keep reminding you that "opinions aren't allowed" and pretty much, to just regurgitate other information/reporting that already exists. You will not be informed of anything, or treated with respect, you are merely there until the editor decides you're not, and that's that. I can earnestly say that Nich Carlson has the IQ of a high school football player with a concussion. He is the epitome of white male privilege, in that he wrecked every job he had up to this point and was somehow named global editor-in-chief. If you ask him a question, he literally doesn't know how to respond, and will probably use Venn Diagrams that make no sense. Think of Chris Hemsworth in the "Ghostbusters" reboot, and that is Nich Carlson. I don't understand how he was ever hired here to begin with, much less run the company. Henry Blodget, you are nice, if not one of one million other white men at that company. If I had to describe Insider in a few words, I think they would be "I just..." because... I just... have trouble finding the words for this place. If you value yourself as a writer, journalist or inclusive individual, do not work here. Do not support this place. If you are a problematic white man or a picture of white feminism, however, then you will love it. Ignore everything I've said. Oh, and as for the content quality, all you have to do is read the website to see the garbage they put out from day-to-day. Spelling errors and clickbait abound. Save yourself the time, energy and near-paralyzing frustration, and consider Insider CANCELLEDT.
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Other Employee Reviews
- Current Employee, more than 8 years★★★★★
Great company to grow into a career
May 25, 2023 - Senior Correspondent in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Insider is a place where you starting writing stories on day one, no matter your level of experience, and the only limiter to how high you climb is you. The company is young(ish) and scrappy, which means every position is hands on. Most writers pitch their own stories, so they can dig into what excites them and build a beat around that. Anyone can pitch to the features desk, which is like the SEAL Team Six of Insider: It works on longform investigations on the people and companies shaping our world. You will also receive mentorship from senior editors and writers and participate in semiweekly trainings on topics ranging from SEO optimization to headlines to landing a big scoop.
Cons
We are a metrics-driven news organization. If you don't believe performance should be measured by readership, this might not be a good fit.
Continue reading - Former Employee★★★★★
Clickbait, burnout culture, horrible leadership
Apr 6, 2023 - EditorRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
- Remote friendly - Pays more than most media orgs
Cons
-Insider is becoming more of a clickbait content factory by the day. Don't be fooled by the recent Pulitzer win — Insider focuses a few people on respectable journalism to boost its reputation while pushing the newsroom as a whole further into clickbait. -An ugly, ugly burnout culture that is hyper-obsessed with performance to an unhinged degree. As an editor, I spent as much time evaluating writer performance as I did doing anything actually related to journalism. -Severe unequal treatment of employees including major differences in salary and metric goals between people with the same title, inconsistent/unevenly applied raises and promotions, and a ton of favoritism where the rules simply don't apply to some. -Leadership has been "sunsetting" roles and pushing people out one or a few at a time for months. They have done this drip so they can continue proudly saying "we've never done layoffs," but it's been really ugly and has totally destroyed morale. -Completely dishonest and inaccessible leadership. Caught them in so many lies that directly affect the roles, compensation, and day-to-day work of the editorial staff. Can't trust them one bit. I have worked at a lot of media companies, and this place will chew you up and spit you out like no other. Many of the amazing journalist who were recently pushed out (or are planning to leave) are planning to strike out on their own or leave journalism all together after working here. RUN!