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Outlet profile

Higher Ed Dive

U.S. center, B2B trade press

Owned byIndustry Dive, a subsidiary of Informa TechTarget (ultimately owned by Informa PLC, a London-based publishing and events company)
FundingPrimarily advertiser-supported; no paywall. Revenue comes from B2B display advertising, sponsored content, and lead-generation products sold to vendors targeting higher education professionals.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

Higher Ed Dive was launched as part of Industry Dive, a B2B media company co-founded in January 2012 in Washington, D.C., by Sean Griffey, Ryan Willumson, and Eli Dickinson — all alumni of FierceMarkets, another trade-media firm. The founders seeded the company with a small amount of angel investment and built a portfolio of niche newsletters and websites covering industries including education, construction, marketing, and utilities, relying on advertising rather than subscriptions. Industry Dive grew steadily over the following decade, reaching 27 newsletters across more than 20 verticals and claiming roughly 13 million readers by the early 2020s. In September 2022, Informa PLC acquired Industry Dive for approximately $500 million, integrating it into its Informa Tech division. In 2024, Industry Dive's brands — including Higher Ed Dive — were folded into Informa TechTarget, a newly formed entity created by combining Informa Tech's digital properties with TechTarget, a B2B demand-generation company. Higher Ed Dive has built a reputation for straight-news trade reporting and carries a 'Least Biased / High Credibility' rating from Media Bias/Fact Check. It does not publish endorsements or opinion columns under its own editorial voice, though it accepts outside opinion contributions. Its coverage of the Trump administration's second-term higher education agenda — including executive orders on DEI, proposed accreditation overhauls, and federal funding threats to universities — has been factual and reported with input from both administration officials and institutional critics.

Sources

  1. Industry Dive – Wikipedia
  2. About – Industry Dive
  3. How Industry Dive grew into a B2B media empire – Simon Owens
  4. What $500m Indy Dive means to Informa – Flashes & Flames
  5. Industry Dive joins Informa TechTarget combination – Industry Dive
  6. HigherEd Dive – Bias and Credibility – Media Bias/Fact Check
  7. About Us – Higher Ed Dive
  8. 'The gatekeepers': Trump's action on accreditation sparks concerns – Higher Ed Dive
  9. Education Department proposes accreditation overhaul – Higher Ed Dive

Profile compiled 2026-08-20; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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