Morning Brew, the business newsletter founded in 2015 by US college friends Austin Rief and Alex Lieberman, is reported to be finalising the sale of a majority to Business Insider (owned by Axel Springer) in a deal reportedly worth more than $75m – almost 4 x $20m revenue expected in 2020.
Morning Brew has a free-to-read subscriber base of 3m, predominantly millennials. who opt for its mobile friendly brief news digest format and has been successful in attracting advertising and sponsorship.
The deal would allow Morning Brew to expand its news services (it has recently added retail, advertising and tech editions) and into podcasting, while Business Insider could begin to monetise the subscriptions.
Business Insider (BI) was launched in 2007 by Harry Blodget who sold the company to Axel Springer in 2015 for over $400m. Under the German company’s ownership, BI has become profitable through a switch to paid subscriptions, a strategy it now wants to apply to Morning Brew. It is also believed that Springer has plans to launch the newsletter in the UK.
