Clicky Business Insider to double down on 'long-form' with 'hundreds of thousands' in investment
For the most part, Business Insider is seen as a pithy must-read for tech and finance junkies, who flock to the six-year-old website for its steady stream of micro-scoops, marathon slideshows and light-speed aggregation that arguably outstrips just about all of its rivals in the digital-media arms race.HT: Henry Blodget and Business Insider
But on occasion, Business Insider has also pursued thoroughly-reported investigations and narrative features, like a deep dive on the founding of Facebook, a behind-the-scenes portrait of Groupon and "The True Story Of The Great Marijuana Crash of 2011."
You can expect to start seeing more of those types of stories on a regular basis.
Business Insider plans to invest "hundreds of thousands of dollars" revving up its long-form content, founder and editor-in-chief Henry Blodget told Capital.
A chunk of that money will go toward hiring an editor whose job will be "to decide the best frequency, length, and approach of these stories, as well as the time and resources invested in each one," said Blodget over email. The rest will be poured into a freelance budget, as Business Insider will be commissioning outside writers and reporters in addition to assigning long-form stories to staff.
"There's a hunger for these kinds of stories," said Blodget. "But we've just now reached the scale where we can dedicate significant resources to this."
Business Insider is spreading its wings as other digital interlopers have also been stealing some of traditional media's thunder when it comes to producing long, thoughtful, narrative journalism. The Huffington Post won a Pulitzer for one such series, about wounded Afghanistan war veterans, last year. Multi-thousand-word features have become a regular part of Gawker Media's mix. And Buzzfeed raised eyebrows this same time last year when it began scouting for a position similar to the one Business Insider is now looking to fill: "longform editor."...MORE
Previously on the longform channel:
Google Goes Longform: In-Depth Articles to Accompany Topical Search Results (GOOG)
See also August's "Journalism: Go Longform or Go Home" and June's "Why Aren’t Top Journalists Rich?".
Also:
"How Will the End of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?"
