Over the last several weeks, after Business Insider chief executive Barbara Peng was abruptly ousted by Axel Springer leadership, interim boss Christian Baesler has sat for more than 100 meetings with staffers across the publishing giant. His primary objective, as he sees it, has been to restore stability after a bruising year in which senior leaders departed, traffic plummeted, subscriptions declined, revenue targets were missed, and employee morale cratered.
It was against that backdrop that Baesler stood before employees on Tuesday for his first all-hands meeting since taking over as interim chief executive in late May. Joined by Axel Springer chief operating officer Claudius Senst, Baesler praised the "passion" and "great ideas" inside the organization. He acknowledged that "the traffic based business," on which Business Insider was built, "is challenged across the industry." But he said he sees "untapped opportunity" elsewhere and declared that Business Insider's brand is "stronger than ever."
Employees, however, appeared far less convinced by that optimistic assessment. According to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by Status, after senior leaders briefed staffers on the areas they oversee, much of the question-and-answer session that followed was…
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