John Carney Joins CNBC: “Corporate Environments Don’t Frighten Me”
Former Business Insider managing editor John Carney is going corporate – he joins NBCU today as senior editor at CNBC.com, to appear regularly on-air.
Guest Of A Guest broke the news, and the full release is after the jump. Mediaite talked to Carney today about his new job, leaving Business Insider and more.
Mediaite: What do you think about moving from a more new media company like at Business Insider to the more corporate environment of NBCU?
Carney: I guess I’ll learn a lot about Big Media or the MSM and the televisions. In all seriousness, though, I was a corporate lawyer at one of the biggest law firms in the world for five years. Corporate environments don’t frighten me.
Mediaite: What attracted you to the job at CNBC/CNBC.com?
Carney: They have a great team with big ambitions for CNBC.com and the broader network. I was really impressed by the quality of the people there.
Mediaite: You haven’t always written the most positive things about CNBC. How do you think the transition will be to the new role?
Carney: That’s true! But the folks at CNBC never seemed to hold a grudge about it. So I won’t hold one against them either.
Mediaite: Were there other offers you considered at positions similar to your previous job?
Carney: There’s a really great expansion going on in online business journalism right now. I talked to lots and lots of people about some really exciting plans. It was like an informal survey of the state of the financial blogosphere. And here’s my conclusion: I’m going to have to kick ass at CNBC to stay competitive with all the other awesome bloggers and sites out there.
Mediaite: Can you describe the experience of exiting Business Insider? Looking back now, what do you take away from the experience?
Carney: I had a great year and half run at Business Insider, working alongside some of my best friends. Joe Weisenthal is one of the hardest working people on earth, and I learned a lot from working with him. I really have no ill-will towards the Business Insider gang, and I wish them the best. I’m sure they’ll be nimble enough to correct course if the current strategy doesn’t pan out.
And here’s the full release from CNBC:
John Carney will be joining CNBC.com, the online destination for real-time global business news and expert analysis, as Senior Editor, it was announced today by Allen Wastler, Managing Editor, CNBC.com. In addition to writing for the site, Carney will also appear regularly on CNBC’s Business Day programming.
“John has deep connections on Wall Street and has a unique insight into its trading community,” said Wastler. “He is well-known within the financial world and we are delighted to have him on our team.”
“We look forward to welcoming John’s reporting savvy, distinctive voice and take on Wall Street to the network,” said Nikhil Deogun, Managing Editor, CNBC Business News.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of the best team in business journalism,” said Carney.
Carney’s appointment to CNBC.com comes on the heels of a record-breaking month for the site. In April, CNBC.com scored a record page view month, with 282 million, making it the #1 stand alone financial news website by total page views according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.** In addition, the online destination for global business news and expert analysis was visited by 5.7 million unique visitors, the most in any April on record.
Previously, Carney was the managing editor of Business Insider’s financial news and gossip vertical, Clusterstock. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal named Clusterstock as one of the ten best financial blogs.
Carney began his journalism career at DealBreaker, a Wall Street blog that covers the personalities and culture that shape the financial industry. There since launch, he served as editor-in-chief and led the site to some of its largest numbers ever. Carney was widely lauded for his hour-by-hour reporting on the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and his in-depth reports on the turmoil inside of Merrill Lynch in the year leading up to its sale to Bank of America.
Carney has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Sun, Page Six Magazine, Gawker, TheAtlantic.com, The Daily Beast, Time Out New York, Fortune and New York magazine.
Before joining Dealbreaker, Carney practiced corporate law at firms such as Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Latham & Watkins, primarily representing banks, hedge funds and private equity firms. He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Carney graduated Summa Cum Laude from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Carney currently resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
