This week, I sat down with Nicholas Carlson, CEO, editor in chief, and founder of Dynamo.
Did you always want to be a journalist? If not, what was the turning point or experience that made you choose the path of journalism?
I have been a storyteller my whole life—I process my experiences and thoughts by telling other people about it—but I didn’t always know that the storyteller role would be journalism.
Somewhat hilariously, my first plan out of college was to be a professional short story writer—the next John Updike. I thought I could have a day job and then write at night.
Nope! It took me three weeks to learn that I could not do a job that I didn’t love for money and work I love for free. So I had to find something that I liked a lot that would pay me. That’s how I found journalism.
You’ve been a journalist for two decades, most notably at Business Insider for 16 years. You were part of Business Insider’s founding team as its first chief correspondent, and you managed major launches, including its tech news division, sports and entertainment sections, and INSIDER in 2015. With such impressive achievements, what were some of your most memorable experiences?
Early in my career, I got access to Mark Zuckerberg’s college instant messages—you know, the ones where he mocks Facebook’s early users and describes his plans to screw over the Winklevosses and push a co-founder out of the company. I remember the night we published that story vividly.
It was 3 a.m., and I’m on the phone with my last source, and the source finally came through. And my boss, former BI founding EIC and CEO Henry Blodget, got off the phone after one last call with Facebook, and then we published it. I remember leaving the office and taking a cab home and feeling completely exhilarated and exhausted. I like that combo.
Recently, I was reading a Financial Times story profiling Zuckerberg, and they quoted the instant messages I uncovered in my story without attribution. I wasn’t irritated, though: I realized the words I revealed about what he had said were now part of the historical record, and I had written his history in a way that is etched into the way we understand him. That story changed the reputation of Business Insider in a big way and set my career in a different direction.
I obviously have tons of other amazing memories from my time at BI, including a Pulitzer Prize, but also lots of those moments where we published a story and it was making noise in the world. I love that feeling.
Outside of that, in the past year—the first year for Dynamo—it has been very exciting to see the progress we’ve made.
During your time as Business Insider’s global editor in chief from 2017 through 2024, the publication won many accolades, including a Pulitzer Prize, a National Magazine Award, Emmy Awards, and SABEW “Best in Business” journalism awards. Having been part of the building process, what would you attribute those successes to?
I attribute those successes to the team. Most of the credit I can take for us winning the Pulitzer, the National Magazine Award, and the Emmys is from working really hard to assemble a great team. By hiring people and then grouping them together in the newsroom to execute ideas … like a comic book about China’s treatment of Uyghurs, which is the story that won our Pulitzer.
I learned from studying the memoirs of editors Ben Bradlee and Tina Brown that my role was to find great journalists and empower them. That’s what we’re up to at Dynamo, as well.
The other lesson from those awards is that, while of course the facts you’re reporting matter, the way you package them matters at least as much. You have to arrange the facts in a way that people will want to download them into their heads. Hence, the comic book idea, for example.
One reason why Dynamo is a video-focused company is due to the importance of arranging facts and shaping stories so that people will actually want to spend time with them and learn from them.
We want to help people understand the world around them.
Video is the world’s favorite storytelling medium. The combination of natural sound, music, and well-edited moving pictures makes you feel and understand stories much more naturally than anything else.
In 2025, you launched Dynamo, a media company that creates “cinematic” video journalism focusing on the theme, “business explains the world,” and distributes content on platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn. Tell me more about Dynamo!
Dynamo is a modern TV network.
It’s modern in how we distribute our TV shows: on YouTube first, and then all other platforms where our audiences are.
We’re modern in how we create content, meaning we use the latest software and hardware tools and to drive down the cost and improve the quality.
We also have a modern way of monetizing, which is to use the only form of marketing that works—integrated ad reads from creators.
Why Dynamo? For many reasons. The journalistic motivation is to help people better understand how the world actually works. By having that conversation through the frame of business and markets, we think we can actually help people move beyond their priors.
The business opportunity I saw was to build a media company solely focused on the world’s favorite storytelling medium. There are other great business-focused media companies making wonderful video, but they are almost all attached to website companies, cable news companies, or terminal subscription companies.
What’s driving your coverage on Dynamo?
Our core philosophy is that humans rose out of the muck to form civilization by working together and trading with each other, which is what we mean by business. Because of that, we think studying markets and business and work can explain how the world actually works.
We also think telling these stories will leave our audience smarter and even more capable of making great companies, careers, communities, and lives.
Our most popular video so far is about oil rigs and how and why oil companies have abandoned them in the Gulf of Mexico. Our perspective is different from other publications.
We start out by saying, “The development of off-shore oil is a tech marvel that drove the economy and improved our way of life for half a century, and that is so impressive. But if this industry can be so impressive, why can’t they clean up after themselves?” That’s a good encapsulation of our perspective.
We are interested in the big questions that people are interested in now and 10 years from now.
For example, there’s a huge conversation going on right now about manufacturing reshoring in the U.S., so we sent a reporter to a bike factory in Tennessee. We’re sure people will be talking about that for years to come.
With such high-quality, cinematic content, what does the lead time and turnaround time look like from engagement to production?
Stories take different lengths of time. We take it upon ourselves to plan accordingly so that some stories can come together in six weeks, which is the fastest time for us. Other stories take many months and give our journalists the time to work.
We’re not breaking news: We’re focused on deeper stories.
You’re the CEO of Dynamo in addition to being the EIC, and you all have already had success working with brands including Framer, Bland AI, and, soon, Salesforce. What do you attribute that to?
We have a very specific type of person in mind when we tell these stories—we call them Dynamos. They’re building companies, careers, and communities, and are curious about the world around them.
They are also interested in business, and they’re in a position of power to make choices on spending and which tools to use.
We think we are a great marketing partner for AI companies in particular.
The business decision makers who make up our audience know that AI could be useful to them, but they aren’t very aware of many companies beyond ChatGPT. So we’re helping a lot of companies introduce themselves and explain how they can be helpful to our audience of builders.
You’ve hired major journalists to the Dynamo team, including Carl Mueller and Rebecca Harrington. What are your ambitions to grow and scale Dynamo?
Dynamo is on its way to becoming a modern TV network. We have one very successful TV series going already, and we will eventually have a couple of dozen more.
The only way to do that is to hire really creative people who are also excellent executives. That means they are insanely creative, but also super-organized, very ambitious, motivated, and entrepreneurial people.
I’ve realized that my job as CEO is to collect more of those kinds of people. We’ve got two in Carl and Rebecca, but we need more!
I’m always on the hunt for people who have the talent and skill to be a head of video at another publication or legacy publication, but want to work somewhere where they understand that their passion is our sole focus, and they want to share in our upside and pursue the same mission we do.
How, in your opinion, has the role of journalism changed? What trends do you see that are here to stay?
Unfortunately, the word “journalism” and the craft it represents are widely misunderstood right now.
I think we as journalists need to be aware of that. We can’t back away from telling the truth, but we need to strive to tell it in a way that people will allow to surprise them and will accept.
That means understanding the audience, their interests, and the way they like to be spoken to.
This is a giant burden on Dynamo and journalists at large.
A lot of norms are being shattered right now in our society. One we cannot destroy is that journalists and media companies must be able to speak the truth. That norm is protected, in part, by journalists making it normal every day. We need to stick to it and not back down from it—whether we are business journalists, lifestyle journalists, or political journalists. Just by keeping on keeping on, we protect that norm.
In terms of what’s here to stay, video journalism and video storytelling!
Can PR folks pitch Dynamo? What’s the best way to reach you and pitch you a story?
Yes, absolutely. Every story at Dynamo is a huge investment. We are very deliberate and careful with our story choices.
We are open to hearing from people about ideas and believe great story ideas come from all over, including from PR people.
To reach us, email us at hello@dynamomedia.com.