Why AI risk threatens publishers like Business Insider the most
The platforms that once fueled their growth are fading fast, and AI is forcing digital-native brands to evolve or disappear.
Looking at the media industry for the past two years, it sometimes feels like it’s just been one long season of layoffs. While the rise of AI hasn’t directly led to many of the issues the media is dealing with today, Business Insider made it plain that it’s certainly a big factor, committing to being “all-in” on AI in the same memo that announced it was cutting 21% of its staff. The move might be the right strategic choice, but it also shows that the class of publications BI belongs to—digital-native and born in the age of scale media—will have the hardest time adapting to an AI-mediated world.
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Digital native, AI exposed
Concerns about AI's impact on the workforce have been brewing for well over a year, but they recently boiled over following two major developments. First, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei set off alarm bells by forecasting that AI would eliminate half of all entry-level jobs, significantly increasing unemployment. Then, as if on cue, Business Insider revealed plans to lay off 21% of its staff.
Though the timing may be coincidental, the one-two punch sent shockwaves through the media industry, which is staring down an existential crisis (in short: AI-driven answers strangle search traffic). But as with any sector, it's essential to recognize that media isn't a one-size-fits-all situation. AI is reshaping audience behavior across the board, but BI's announcement highlights how digital-native brands are uniquely at risk.
In her message to staff, CEO Barbara Peng said BI was "going all-in on AI," framing the layoffs as part of a broader repositioning. Going forward, the company would aim to lessen its reliance on traffic altogether. That means eliminating areas built on clicks, like its commerce division, while simultaneiously ramping up live events, pushing harder into subscriptions, and encouraging (pressuring?) the newsroom to make more use of AI tools.
This isn't BI's first step down this path. The company once aspired to be a general-interest brand—briefly rebranding to Insider in 2021—but reverted to Business Insider less than three years later. More recently, BI has pivoted to highlighting distinctive voices and standout talent, a shift away from the high-volume publishing that drove its ascent during the 2010s alongside peers like Vice, Quartz, and BuzzFeed.
The old playbook in a new era
BI, to its credit, was one of the rare success stories from that period. It sold to Axel Springer for $343 million in 2015, just ahead of the downturn in the scale-media model. Perhaps that's why it’s taken BI so long to adapt. The outlet has been trimming staff for a while now—down to about half its 2022 headcount of 1,000, per Press Gazette.
AI is now forcing its hand. Peng’s note cites that 70% of BI’s business is “traffic sensitive”—a polite way of saying it relies on content designed to attract clicks via search, social, or feed-based platforms. Who are the people clicking? How do you incentivize them to return or transact with your brand? In the media model BI was built for, it didn't matter—it only mattered how big the number was on any given day.
Today, BI is making the moves every media strategist would suggest: subscription paywalls, events, newsletters, and first-party data. These are the right calls, but for BI the moves are reactive retreats rather than proactive bets. The fact is BI’s foundation was built in a different digital era. It still has a brand—but is that brand resilient enough to withstand what AI demands?
I don’t mean to pick on BI, but it does illustrate why media companies born in the 2010s will have the hardest time in the AI era. Legacy publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have build deep moats with strong journalism and diversified revenue. Meanwhile, leaner startups like 404 Media, The Ankler, and The Free Press are gaining traction through cultivating talent, getting scoops and offering sharp points of view.
It's the brands in between—the ones that followed the same playbook as BI—now scrambling to re-engineer themselves to meet this moment. Look at Ziff Davis—parent to Mashable, PCMag, and IGN—currently suing OpenAI. Its model of publishing evergreen, free content optimized for clicks has become a prime target for AI substitution.
Experimentation ≠ transformation
As part of its AI-forward agenda, Peng touted AI-powered features like its site search and dynamic paywall. She also noted that 75% of the staff are now using AI tools—specifically ChatGPT Enterprise—with a goal of reaching full adoption. The company is building prompt libraries and encouraging cross-team sharing of AI use cases.
While that direction is sound, it still feels like it’s in the early stages. Compare it with a newsroom like Reuters, which is embedding AI modularly into editorial workflows under a clear framework: reduce, augment, transform. It's great that BI is exploring—but without a systematic approach, true transformation will be fragmented. And relying on a single AI provider like OpenAI, while convenient given the partnership, limits flexibility.
For other digital outlets staring down irrelevance or contraction, BI’s roadmap is a case study. It’s imperative to rethink not just traffic, but the entire concept of measuring success through it. Sure, ad impressions still drive the bottom line—and that won’t change overnight, or ever. But a long fade seems inevitable. The first step is shifting to metrics that prioritize engagement, impact, and loyalty. That's the path to cultivating direct reader relationships—essential to building media brands that are sustainable in the AI era.
BI’s pivot is in the right direction, but lasting change won’t come from trimming headcount or introducing new tech alone. The digital media survivors of the AI era will be the ones who clearly know who they serve—and why they’re worth returning to. That takes more than adaptation. It takes reinvention.
A version of the column first appeared in Fast Company.