United States
Insider is the video and social media brand of Business Insider, the New York-based digital newsroom founded in 2007 and acquired by Axel Springer in 2015.
Total Followers +0.3%
16.3M
Across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
Primary Platform
YouTube
9.6M followers · 59% of audience
Engagement
2.6%
vs. 1.5% category median
Sponsorship Tier
Mega
Est. $39K–$91K / IG post
A fresh round of cuts affecting roughly 8% of staff was announced in May 2026, coinciding with CEO Peng's planned departure. The Wrap noted it marked the fourth straight year of workforce reductions at the Axel Springer-owned outlet.
Variety reported the Axel Springer-owned company slashed headcount across every department, citing AI disruption and falling platform traffic, while pivoting toward live events and AI-powered products. The Insider Union called the AI messaging 'tone deaf.'
| Window | YouTube | TikTok | Combined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 7 days | +0 +0.0% | +2K +0.1% | +0 +0.0% | +2K |
| Last 30 days | +20K +0.2% | +25K +0.8% | +0 +0.0% | +45K |
| Last 90 days | +50K +0.5% | +33K +1.0% | +0 +0.0% | +83K |
| Last 365 days | +50K +0.5% | +33K +1.0% | +0 +0.0% | +83K |
Daily follower snapshots from CreatorDB's longitudinal index.
Insider is the video and social media brand of Business Insider, the New York-based digital newsroom founded in 2007 and acquired by Axel Springer in 2015. While Business Insider built its reputation on written journalism covering finance, technology, and enterprise, the Insider video channel carved out a distinct identity through documentary-style explainers that lean into crime, psychology, and systems-level storytelling. Series like 'How Crime Works' — covering serial killer profiling, wildlife trafficking, and organized crime operations — have become signature fare, blending journalism with the pacing and curiosity-driven hooks of mainstream documentary content. This format has allowed the brand to sustain a substantial cross-platform presence across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
The audience skews heavily male and clusters in the 18–34 bracket, a demographic that gravitates toward investigative and systems-oriented content rather than breaking news. Engagement above the category median on YouTube suggests strong video completion and community interaction relative to other media publishers at this scale. A partnership with Hulu signals appetite from streaming platforms to align with Insider's documentary sensibility. As legacy media brands compete for video-native attention, Insider's positioning — journalistic credibility paired with algorithmically legible explainer formats — keeps it relevant with younger, English-speaking audiences seeking substantive but accessible long-form content.
Insider reaches an audience concentrated in United States primarily through YouTube, and is best activated via long-form YouTube integrations, Instagram Reels and Stories, TikTok branded content. As a news creator they map naturally to brands targeting that space. Demonstrated partners include Hulu. Engagement on YouTube runs around 2.6%, which points to an audience better suited to category-relevant, mid-funnel campaigns than to pure-reach buys. The channel's mix of long-form YouTube integrations and Instagram Reels and Stories lets a sponsor choose between short awareness placements and longer, more detailed integrations. Because the audience follows news content rather than arriving through untargeted reach, sponsorships that match the channel's subject matter tend to convert more efficiently than broad placements. A consistent, on-topic posting focus gives sponsors a predictable, brand-safe environment, lowering placement risk compared with broad, general-interest channels. Campaigns here are best measured on qualified engagement and consideration within the niche rather than on raw impression volume. For United States-focused brands in news and related categories, Insider offers a defined, creative-fit audience rather than broad, low-intent impressions.
Benchmark estimates for a creator at Insider's tier (Mega, 16.3M combined followers, United States). Pulled from CreatorDB's category benchmarks.
The CreatorDB Agency runs end-to-end influencer campaigns globally — shortlisting, outreach, contracting, and performance reporting. Talk to our team about building a campaign around creators in this niche.
Insider is the dedicated video channel produced by Business Insider, a global newsroom focused on business, technology, and the economy. The two brands share editorial resources and journalism, but the Insider handle is built specifically for video audiences on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, packaging that reporting into documentary-style and explainer formats.
How Crime Works is one of Insider's signature YouTube franchises, breaking down the real mechanics behind criminal behavior, law enforcement, and the justice system. Episodes have tackled FBI serial killer profiling, how female serial killers actually operate, and what life inside a women's maximum-security prison is really like, drawing on interviews with experts and law enforcement insiders.
Yes — Insider featured Dr. Patric Gagne, who carries a formal diagnosis of sociopathy, letting her explain the personality disorder from the inside, including aspects she describes as unexpected advantages. The video is part of Insider's broader first-person crime and psychology content that has driven some of its strongest engagement on both YouTube and TikTok.
How Real Is It? is a recurring Insider format that brings in real-world professionals — soldiers, doctors, hackers, chefs — to fact-check how accurately Hollywood portrays their fields. It sits alongside How Crime Works as one of the channel's most recognized franchises and consistently performs well across Insider's video platforms.
Yes — Insider has published content featuring former CIA officers recounting real covert operations, including one account where an officer says a double agent was ordered to kill him. These videos reflect the channel's appetite for first-person intelligence and national security stories alongside its crime and investigative journalism catalog.
Insider has published documentary-style content exploring Chinatown gang history and operations, consistent with its broader organized crime coverage. The topic sits within a wider pattern of the channel examining real criminal enterprises and the communities and law enforcement forces that interact with them.
Yes — alongside its crime and investigative content, Insider regularly publishes videos on how physical infrastructure such as asphalt roads, landscaping, and large-scale construction projects actually come together. This 'how things are made and work' angle is a consistent thread in the channel's catalog, broadening its appeal well beyond crime alone.
Yes — Hulu is a confirmed sponsor with a deal running on Insider's YouTube channel. Insider's documentary-style crime, lifestyle, and investigative content makes it a natural fit for a streaming platform looking to reach an engaged, predominantly adult male audience interested in factual storytelling.
Insider has grown to nearly 10 million subscribers on YouTube, placing it firmly in the Mega tier and making it one of the larger news and documentary video brands on the platform. Its engagement runs well above the category median for news and media channels — a meaningful signal at that scale, where large audiences typically dilute interaction rates.
Insider's audience skews heavily male, with roughly three-quarters of viewers being men, and the core demographic falls in the 18-to-34 age range. The channel draws primarily from English-speaking markets, with the United States making up the large majority of viewership, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, and India.
Stats (followers, engagement, audience demographics, growth) are pulled live from the CreatorDB API covering YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Bio and FAQ content is AI-assisted; news items are sourced from cited public press at generation time. Read the full methodology →
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@insider · YouTube
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