Business Insider cuts 8% of staff as part of a 'new direction' for outlet

An internal from Business Insider from CEO Barbara Peng has revealed that the company is laying off 8 percent of its staff as part of a "new direction" in the new year.

Peng stated in internal emails, "As part of our new direction, today we are announcing we are reducing the size of our team — a change that impacts about 8% of our people." 

"We closed out last year with a plan in place, a clear target audience, and a vision. This year is about making it happen and focusing our company and efforts towards this future. We have already begun to refocus teams and invest in areas that drive outsize value for our core audience."

"Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization," Peng added.

“We’re saying goodbye to wonderful colleagues who have helped build Business Insider into what it is today," she stated.

Those affected, Peng said, would receive a minimum of 13 weeks of pay and medical coverage through May, as well as "career support services."  

Bill Ackman reacted to the emails slamming the outlet as a "sleazy, unethical, defamer" and "a worthless POS rag." 

Billionaire Bill Ackman, whose wife became a target of the outlet after the business mogul called Harvard's Claudine Gay out for plagiarism and antisemitism, slammed the outlet, writing, "Business Insider is a sleazy, unethical, defamer of some of our greatest heroes. It is a worthless POS rag run by the lowest of the low in journalism. It is a stain on humanity." 

Peng notified employees there would be a company-wide call at 11:30 a.m. to discuss the changes and that team leaders would speak to employees who had any questions. Ackman commented on the call, "Real journalists might listen in to the [11:30] am call. I expect it will be newsworthy." 

Ackman called out the staff who had overseen the reports on his wife and wrote, "Let us know if Katherine Long, John Cook, and Nicholas Carlson were given pink slips. If they remain, then it is clear that nothing will change and this is simply a cost reduction program."