 | |
 Home page of the September 9, 2010, edition ofIBTimes | |
| Type | 24/7 |
|---|---|
| Format | Online |
| Owner | IBT Media |
| Founded | 2006; 19 years ago (2006) |
| Language |
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| Headquarters | 7Hanover Square, Fl 5 Manhattan,New York City, US |
| Website | www |
TheInternational Business Times is an Americanonline newspaper[1] that publishes five national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes calledIBTimes orIBT, offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on business and commerce. IBT is one of the world's largest online news sources, claiming forty million unique visitors each month in 2014.[2][3] Its 2013 revenues were around $21 million.[4] As of January 2022,[update] IBTimes editions includeAustralia,[5]India,[6] International,[7]Singapore,[8]U.K.[9] andU.S.[10]
IBTimes was launched in 2005; it is owned byIBT Media,[11] and was founded byEtienne Uzac andJohnathan Davis, two followers ofDavid Jang who also has a relationship to IBT and Newsweek.[12] Its headquarters are in theFinancial District ofLower Manhattan,New York City.[13]
Founder Etienne Uzac, a native of France, came up with the idea for the global business news site while a student at theLondon School of Economics. He found that the strongest business newspapers had a focus on the United States and Europe and planned to provide broader geographic coverage. Uzac recruited Johnathan Davis to join him in the enterprise.[14] In late 2005, Uzac and Davis moved toNew York City to launch the site, with Uzac primarily focused on business strategy, while Davis coded the site and wrote the first articles.[15]
In May 2012, the company announced the appointment ofJeffery Rothfeder, a former national news editor atBloomberg, aseditor-in-chief and the promotion of Davis fromexecutive editor tochief content officer.[16] In 2013, it bought the strugglingNewsweek magazine from Barry Diller.[12]
Peter S. Goodman, previously executive business editor andglobal news editor ofThe Huffington Post, became editor-in-chief in 2014.[17] Goodman left the company in 2016.[18] and was soon replaced by Dayan Candappa, the ex-deputy managing editor ofReuters, as new Editor-in-Chief ofIBTimes.[19] From March to July 2016,IBT laid off an estimated thirty percent of its editorial staff.[20] At the same time, Pragad, was brought to theUnited States fromLondon to be the global CEO ofNewsweek andIBT's parent company.[21][22] This was followed in January 2017 by the appointment ofAlan Press in the "newly created, strategic role of President".[23]
In 2018, IBT spun out Newsweek as an independent entity co-owned by Davis and current Newsweek president and CEODev Pragad.[24][25]
In April 2006 theInternational Business Times made its first foray into the online world with the launch of ibtimes.com. This provided a summary of news from around the globe, which was supplemented in November 2007 with a dedicatedForeign Exchange (Forex) portal, providing 24/7 coverage.[26] After 2007 the site underwent several revamps and changes of strategy as the company reacted to changes online, culminating with a design to highlight its journalism and better serve advertisers in 2017.[27][28]
From 2012,IBTimes won or was nominated for a series of online media and journalism awards, including best investigative journalism, editor of the year, best video journalism and best writer of the year.[29]
Ex-journalists toldThe Guardian in 2014 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 readership to their articles increased sharply.[30]
In 2015,IBT was nominatedGerald Loeb Award for distinguished business journalism in the beat reporting around state pension corruption.[31] The series of reports by theIBT team ledNew Jersey state government to open a formal pay to play investigation and to divest state holdings in a venture capital firm.[32][33] The series also led San Francisco officials to delay a proposed $3 billion investment in hedge funds.[34][35]
In 2016,IBT received four "Best in Business" awards from theSociety of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), the most of any publication that year. The works included the International Explainer winner "Lebanon's Refugee Economy"[36] which brought new understanding to the economic and human dimensions of the crisis in Syria. An examination of exorbitant fees charged to prisoners,[37] prompted a response by theFCC.[38] while an in-depth series on the business of marijuana[39] won the Small Business Category.[40]
Goodman said of the time the awards were "validation of our aggressive investment in original reporting and story-telling."[41]
Also 2016,IBT hiredJohn Crowley, theWall Street Journal's EMEA digital editor, as its UK editor-in-chief. According toThe Guardian, "Crowley said his focus would be on helping the site break exclusives, in-depth storytelling and new forms of digital journalism. He saidIBT was putting together a UK business desk and hiring an audience team." Crowley stated, "We are not awire service or so-calledpaper 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."[42]
In early 2017,International Business Times joined a partnership along with the likes ofBloomberg,Channel 4 and theBBC to work together to combat the spread offake news.[43]
In June 2017, Jason Murdock — who coverscybersecurity for theInternational Business Times UK — won Digital Writer of the year at the Drum Online Media Awards, which according toInPublishing magazine "identify the cleverest, boldest and most original purveyors of news and views from around the world."[44]
In 2017, during the buildup to what would become theTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, theInternational Business Times broke news that a last-minute revision was added to the bill that allowed people who hold real estate holdings through alimited liability company to be able to take advantage of a new deduction for "pass-through" businesses.[45] The report notedPresident Trump and several policy makers stood to benefit from the language.[45] The reporting spread quickly, prompting responses from senators and lawmakers[46] and subsequently won aSABEW for 2017 Breaking News Category.[47]
In theColumbia Journalism Review, contributing editorTrudy Lieberman creditedIBT'sDavid Sirota's investigative reporting for helping to drive a call for reform in Connecticut health insurance regulation.[48]
In October 2017, as media and public frenzy grew aroundHarvey Weinstein allegations, which in-turn led to national and global movements for the protection of women with#MeToo being the most recognized of them,IBT dropped a bombshell exclusive piece linking Weinstein with theNew York District Attorney,Cy Vance.[49] The story was the first to financially connect Vance with Weinstein and elevated subsequent scrutiny around the DA's prosecution record.[50][51][52][53]
On August 4, 2013,IBT Media announced its acquisition ofNewsweek and the domain newsweek.com fromIAC/InterActiveCorp.[54] In the years following the purchase,Newsweek underwent several organizational and leadership changes. In 2018,Newsweek was spun off as an independent company jointly owned by Jonathan Davis and Dev Pragad. A legal dispute initiated by IBT Media in 2022 regarding the terms of the separation was later dismissed, with the decision upheld on appeal in 2023. By 2024, the matter was considered closed due to the statute of limitations.[24]
In its early years, reports inThe Guardian and other media outlets described links between IBT Media andOlivet University, an evangelical institution founded by David Jang. According to those reports, some Olivet students were said to have assisted IBT Media with translation and editorial work. IBT representatives have stated that the company operates independently and that its association with Olivet is limited to educational and professional collaborations. Both of IBT’s co-founders, Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis, have acknowledged past academic and professional involvement with Olivet University. Davis has said that while he identifies with Christian values, he maintains a clear distinction between his personal faith and his professional work.[30]
In 2016, employees complained publicly about missed payroll, meager or nonexistentseverance packages, and one-sidednondisclosure agreements.[55][56]
The nature of the connection betweenIBT and The Community, a Christian sect led byDavid Jang, is disputed;IBT states that many reports about its connections to The Community are false or exaggerated.[2]Christianity Today claimed in 2012 that it had 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.[30]