In a sobering look at the business of new news media, the
Business Insider reports finally turning a profit last year -- of $2,127. "The sum total of our year's worth of effort would
barely--just barely--buy us a MacBook Pro," notes BI's CEO and editor-in-chief Henry Blodget. The profit was on revenue of $4.8 million, that vast majority of which came from advertising, according to
Blodget.
Calling that revenue number "puny," Blodget says it's still a lot more than the $40,000 in revenue the company made three years ago. Also, if BI can maintain a similar growth
trajectory, Blodget will be a very rich man. As a private company, why disclose such a modest financial performance. Blodget simply calls it an "experiment."
Meanwhile, "Even though
we're dumb enough to disclose all this stuff, we're not quite dumb enough to make a projection," he adds. "But please forgive us for believing that, if we keep working hard, and we keep getting
better, we can eventually get to--and beyond--where Huffpo and Gawker are today (financially)."
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