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Outlet profile

Morning Brew

U.S. business-focused, center (non-ideological, light-touch)

Owned byAxel Springer SE, the German media group that also owns Business Insider and Politico. Axel Springer bought a majority stake through Insider Inc. in October 2020 and bought out the remaining share in February 2025, according to reports.
FundingMainly advertising and sponsorships in its free email newsletters. It also earns money from paid products, events, and B2B marketing offerings.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

Morning Brew began as a daily business news summary that Alex Lieberman wrote for classmates at the University of Michigan around 2014. Lieberman and Austin Rief rebranded it and sent the first official newsletter in early 2015. The company raised a small seed round of about $750,000 in 2017 and grew mostly through a student ambassador referral program and newsletter advertising. It added industry-specific newsletters such as Retail Brew, Marketing Brew, and Emerging Tech Brew, and later expanded into other products and a B2B arm. In October 2020, Insider Inc. (owned by Axel Springer) bought a majority stake in an all-cash deal reported at about $75 million; the founders kept a minority stake and an earn-out. Rief replaced Lieberman as CEO in 2021. In February 2025, Axel Springer bought the remaining stake and Rief moved to executive chairman. Its editorial approach is explanatory and focused on business, markets, and tech for a young professional audience. Its perspective is generally mainstream and pro-business, and it is less opinion-driven than outlets in political media. Note: I did not retrieve a systematic review of its recent coverage of the Trump administration, so the stance rating is an assessment based on its general format and orientation.

Sources

  1. Axel Springer buys remaining stake in Morning Brew (Talking Biz News)
  2. Exclusive: Insider Inc. buys majority stake in Morning Brew in all-cash deal (Axios)
  3. Morning Brew tops 4 million newsletter subscribers as it looks to expand with M&A (CNBC)
  4. Why Morning Brew sold to Insider and Axel Springer (Talking Biz News)
  5. Who Owns Morning Brew: From Founders to Axel Springer (LegalClarity)

Profile compiled 2026-10-31; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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