The top editor at Insider admitted to other bosses at the embattled news site that “I’m tired too” as a writer’s strike enters its second week — and suggested that they pace themselves as they continue to crank out stories to keep the site afloat.
In a Slack message reviewed by The Post, Editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson — who has been forced to write 11 stories himself since the strike started — warned that the chaos “may last a little longer” as reporters continued to strike over wages, benefits and layoffs that claimed 10% of the workforce last month.
“I know you’re tired. I’m tired too,” Carlson wrote on Thursday morning to non-union staffers, which include editors and reporters based outside the US. “So I have an important message: we are exiting the ‘do this on adrenaline’ phase, and moving into a phase where we have to keep serving our audience, but in a way that it’s sustainable for you.”
“You can’t have an environment like that where people don’t take breaks,” Carlson added.
Sources said the message was in response to complaints from managers about the punishing workload, which includes churning out multiple stories a day, repurposing old stories — and in at least one case — publishing a rough draft of a reporter’s story in a desperate bid to keep web traffic from plummeting.
“It’s clear from what we’ve seen in Slack that the managers that are left are scrambling to make up the work that union members usually do,” said William Antonelli, tech reporter and shop steward for the NewsGuild of New York, said on the union’s behalf.
“The managers that I’ve spoken to have made it clear that they trust the union’s word much more than the company executives,” he added.
“Of course, it’s been challenging for our newsroom to keep up the pace as half our team isn’t working,” said an Insider spokesman. Thankfully, the other half is doing a spectacular job, so overall we’re fine. We miss those who are on strike, and hope to come to an agreement soon with the union.”
The lack of fresh copy has forced Insider CEO Henry Blodget to pen a few columns himself, tagging them with headlines like “Yes, you should have children, even in the face of climate change!” and “Thank you, Apple! Ignore the haters. Innovation is brave, inspiring, necessary, and cool.”
Meanwhile, Carlson, has also published a slew of stories since the strike kicked off, such as “Apple sure kicked Meta’s butt today, right?” and “FINALLY! Your iPhone will let you ‘ducking’ say exactly what you ‘ducking’ meant to say.”
The company has also repackaged old stories, giving them new headlines and some cosmetic updates, sources said, pointing to a story entitled: “13 TikTok media kit examples that creators use to get paid brand partnerships.”
“Insider management does not accept natural dips in traffic,” said one staffer. “No one seems to understand what the vision of the company is aside from ‘how many page views did you get?’
Earlier this week, investigative tech reporter Meghan Morris tweeted that editors at Insider published a story that had she had still been “drafting” without consulting her.
Morris, who is on strike, said the story wasn’t ready for publication and that she had yet to reach out to Starbucks, the subject of the story, for comment– a journalistic no-no.
“Because the Insider Union is on strike, I did not finish ‘drafting’ this story, including reaching out to my normal comms channel for comment. I’m horrified this story went out and urge you not to read it,” Morris tweeted.
The move sparked outrage from fellow reporters from a variety of publications, who blasted Insider’s management.
“Probably a journalist’s worst nightmare,” one fellow Insider reporter tweeted. “So sorry, Meghan, I hope readers don’t cross the picket line and your sources understand what happened.”
On Thursday, Insider traffic totaled 3.4 million page views, down 19% from the last four Thursdays, according to a person briefed on the numbers. Unique views were 2.8 million, down 12% and total time spent on the site fell, as well. Total engaged minutes spent on the site totaled 2.2 million, down 19% for an average of 39 seconds per visit.
For the first five days of June, page views totaled about 158 million, down from the first five days of May when traffic totaled 172 million, The Post has learned.
New subscriptions–a metric reporters are evaluated by–also fell from 985 new sign ups in the first five days in June from 1,291 for the first five days in May.
A source close to the situation said Insider’s unique visits were actually up week-over-week during the strike. Another source with knowledge said traffic started to decline mid-week once the company ran out of pre-written stories to publish.
Last weekend, angry union members papered the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Windsor Terrace and Park Slope — where Blodget and Carlson both reside — with roughly 400 flyers calling out both men.
“Have you seen this millionaire CEO?,” the flyer reads with a photo of Blodget and information on the 250 unionized Insider workers who are looking to reach a “fair contract” with company management.
A second flyer includes a photo of Carlson with the headline: “Have you seen this millionaire? Meet your neighbor Nich Carlson the editor-in-chief of Insider Inc.”
Union members went on strike after failing to resolve several disagreements with management over, among other things, the company’s health care plan and annual raises.
On Friday at midnight, Insider’s union wrote on Twitter: “It’s official: THE INSIDER UNION IS ON STRIKE. Management failed to agree on a fair contract that settles our healthcare ULP and pays us what we’re worth. Starting now, over 250 Insider employees are on indefinite strike. You want us back @thisisinsider? Settle the contract.”
According to the union health care costs increased drastically, with some employees seeing increases of more than a whopping 1000%. Other issues include salary floors and annual wage increases.
The strike comes a month after hundreds of Insider staffers staged a walk out to protest plans to layoff 10% of Insider staff.
Insider employees formed a union in 2021.
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