International Business Times

International Business Times
The September 9, 2010 front page of
The IBTimes home page
Type 24/7
Format Online
Owner(s) IBT Media[1]
Editor Peter S. Goodman[2]
Founded 2006
Language English, Chinese, Japanese, Italian
Headquarters 7 Hanover Square, Fl 5
Manhattan, New York City, US
Website www.ibtimes.com

The International Business Times is an online news publication[3] that publishes seven national editions and four languages. The publication, sometimes called IBTimes or IBT, offers news, opinion, and editorial commentary on business and commerce. IBT is one of the world's largest online news sources;[4] IBT's 2014 media kit claims that its online properties receive 40 million unique visitors each month.[4][5] Its 2013 revenues were around $21 million.[6]

IBTimes was launched in 2005; it is owned by IBT Media,[3] and was founded by Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis. Its headquarters are in a former Newsweek office in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City.[7]

History

A hand-drawn blueprint, created in 2007 by Davis, outlining what would become the IBTimes FX Center.

Founder Etienne Uzac, a native of France, came up with the idea for the global business news site while a student at the London School of Economics. He found that the strongest business newspapers had a focus on the U.S and Europe and planned to provide broader geographic coverage. Uzac recruited Johnathan Davis to join him in the enterprise.[8] In late 2005, Uzac and Davis moved to New York to launch the site, with Uzac primarily focused on business strategy, while Davis coded the site and wrote the first articles.[9]

In May 2012, the company announced that Jeffery Rothfeder had been appointed as the publication's new Editor-in-Chief, while Davis, who previously served as Executive Editor, would manage the company's content strategy across all platforms as the Chief Content Officer.[10]

On August 4, 2013, IBT Media, the owner of IBTimes, announced its purchase of Newsweek and newsweek.com from IAC/InterActiveCorp. The purchase did not include The Daily Beast.[11] Peter S. Goodman, previously the executive business editor and global news editor of The Huffington Post, became the editor in 2014.[1]

From March to July 2016, IBT laid off an estimated 30 percent of its editorial staff.[12] This period marked a new era for the company as it expanded into branded content and events with its sister publication Newsweek. At the same time, Dev Pragad who had started the EMEA business in 2009 was promoted from managing director of Europe to global CEO of Newsweek and IBT.[13][14] This was followed in January 2017 by the appointment of Alan Press in the “newly-created, strategic role of President”.[15]

Content quality

In late 2011, Google allegedly moved the outlet's articles down in search results in response to excessive search engine optimization activity. An internal IBT memo allegedly advised IBT journalists on how to "re-work a story you've already done and re-post it in the hopes that it will chart better via Google... Some people have been just re-posting the exact same story, with a new headline. We're not doing that anymore."[16]

Reporting in 2014, Mother Jones claimed that IBT journalists are subject to constant demand to produce clickbait; one former employee reportedly complained that management issued "impossible" demands, including a minimum of 10,000 hits per article, and fired those who couldn't deliver. Of 432 articles published by IBT Japan in a certain time interval, 302 were reportedly created by copying sentences from Japanese media and combining them, "collage-style", to create stories that seemed new; IBT Japan apologized for the behavior and blamed it on a contract employee.[4] Similarly, employees told The Guardian in 2014 that that at times they seemed to operate more as "content farms" demanding high-volume output than a source of quality journalism. At least two journalists were allegedly threatened with firing unless traffic to their articles increased sharply.[16]

In 2016, IBT hired John Crowley, the Wall Street Journal's Europe, Middle East and Africa digital editor, as its UK editor-in-chief. According to The Guardian, “Crowley said his focus would be on helping the site break exclusives, in-depth storytelling and new forms of digital journalism. He said IBT was putting together a UK business desk and hiring an audience team.” Crowley stated "We are not a wire service or so-called paper of record... but I have a vision of where I want to take a site... we've got to have a USP (unique selling proposition)... make ourselves distinctive in journalistic terms."[17] The standard of content on IBTimes.co.uk has notably improved in recent years with reputable papers such as The Times quoting exclusive content from the publication.[18] Sports and entertainment coverage often gets pick up in the British press [19][20][21] and on the BBC.[22][23] In early 2017, International Business Times UK joined a partnership along with the likes of Bloomberg, Channel 4 and the BBC to work together to combat the spread of fake news.[24]

Media Matters for America, a politically progressive journalism watchdog, labeled an IBT article linking Hillary Clinton's policies to the gun used in the Sandy Hook Massacre a "false and sloppy smear" that was based on a misreading of government documents.[25] Media Matters also criticized IBT for publishing an article with the headline "Is Climate Change Real? President-Elect Donald Trump Says 'Nobody Really Knows' Whether The Threat Actually Exists", on the grounds that, while the article text acknowledges the scientific consensus, readers who only read the headline might be misled.[26]

In the Columbia Journalism Review, contributing editor Trudy Lieberman credited IBT's David Sirota's investigative reporting for helping to drive a call for reform in Connecticut insurance regulation.[27]

Labor relations

According to an article in Mother Jones magazine, in the early days of the International Business Times, IBT Media employed immigrant students of Olivet University to translate English into Chinese and other languages, working illegally and being paid less than minimum wage.[4]

In 2016, employees complained publicly about missed payroll, meager or nonexistent severance packages following layoffs, and one-sided nondisclosure agreements.[28][29]

Relationship to "The Community"

The connection of "The Community," a Christian sect led by a "charismatic Korean pastor named David Jang", with IBT is disputed; IBT states that many reports about connections with the Community are false or exaggerated.[4]

Co-owners Johnathan Davis and Etienne Uzac both have ties to Olivet University, an evangelical school founded by David Jang. Graduates of Olivet have been hired to work at IBT Media in many areas; IBT Media has donated money to Olivet. Davis is a former teacher of journalism at Olivet; Davis' wife is the university's president. Uzac has been on Olivet's board of trustees; Uzac's wife has been the press secretary for the World Evangelical Alliance, which includes Olivet as a member. Davis has personally endorsed the "ex-gay" view that homosexuality can be a result of childhood sexual abuse, and can be cured by therapy to make them heterosexual. Davis states that his work is separate from his faith, and has declined to elaborate on his religious views on homosexuality, stating that it "I'm not sure how it's relevant. People believe all sorts of weird things. But from a professional capacity, it's unrelated."[16]

Christianity Today claimed in 2012 that it obtained an email in which Davis stated that he could not join a certain Jang-affiliated organization because his "commission is inherently covert". Davis denied the claim.[16] According to Business Insider, there are signs that Jang's concept of journalism involves infusing the "Gospel message" into media.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 Leslie Kauffman (4 March 2014). "Huffington Post Business and Global News Editor Is Leaving for International Business Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "Peter Goodman named editor-in-chief of International Business Times". Capital New York.
  3. 1 2 "About us". International Business Times. IBT Media. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Dooley, Ben (March 31, 2014). "Who's Behind Newsweek?". Mother Jones. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ "IBT Media: 2014 Media Kit" (PDF). ibtimes.com. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  6. ↑ Kaufman, Leslie (4 March 2014). "Huffington Post Business and Global News Editor Is Leaving for International Business Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  7. ↑ "Braving bad juju International Business Times moves into Newsweek's old newsroom". The New York Observer. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Company Timeline". Digiday.com. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Company Timeline". International Business Times. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Marketwatch". Marketwatch.com. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Newsweek purchased by International Business Times owner". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 5, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  12. ↑ Grove, Lloyd (29 July 2016). "Pay Up: Journalists Twitter-Shame IBT Bosses Over Severance Pay". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  13. ↑ "IBT Media, Following Layoffs, Announces New Leadership Structure". Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  14. ↑ "Battered in the US, IBT Media is expanding in Europe - Digiday". Digiday. 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  15. ↑ "IBT Media, Inc.: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Swaine, Jon (28 March 2014). "Faith and a media icon: Newsweek's unconventional new owners". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  17. ↑ Jackson, Jasper (24 February 2016). "International Business Times appoints WSJ's John Crowley as UK editor". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  18. ↑ "Poll watchdog attacks EU leaflet". Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  19. ↑ Rabbetts, Barry (2017-01-05). "Diego Costa reveals what he said to Pedro during THAT bust-up". mirror. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  20. ↑ "Chelsea's Diego Costa says Pedro spat is in the past after Tottenham defeat: 'We love each other'". Evening Standard. 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  21. ↑ Luckhurst, Samuel (2017-01-19). "Luke Shaw agent responds to Manchester United transfer speculation". men. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  22. ↑ "Formula 1 gossip: Williams, Brawn, Verstappen, Bottas, Hamilton". BBC Sport. 2017-02-17. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  23. ↑ "Looks like Lil Wayne has announced his retirement from music". Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  24. ↑ "European newsrooms are forming a united front against fake news - Digiday". Digiday. 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  25. ↑ "This False And Sloppy Smear Links Hillary Clinton To The Sandy Hook Massacre". Media Matters for America. 19 April 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  26. ↑ "Donald Trump's Climate Denial Is A Problem, And These News Headlines Are Making It Worse". Media Matters for America. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  27. ↑ "How IBT's reporting is driving a controversy over a major healthcare merger in Connecticut". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  28. ↑ "Laid-off IBT journalists make news of their own in Twitter protest". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  29. ↑ Kludt, Jackie Wattles and Tom (28 July 2016). "IBT Media's fired workers say company has no 'human decency'". CNNMoney. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  30. ↑ "Newsweek Backers Tied To Program Seeking To 'Propagate The Gospel' Through Journalism". Business Insider. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
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