Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin

Blazing a Trail for Glenn Beck

By Roger Thompson

Betsy Morgan (MBA ’95) set media-world tongues wagging when talk-show host Glenn Beck announced in early January that he had hired the former Huffington Post CEO to head his new Web site, The Blaze. The ideological leap from left-leaning Huffington Post to conservative Beck baffled media watchers but made perfect sense to Morgan.

“I am a very apolitical person,” she said in an interview reported by the New York Times (January 6, 2011). “I’m a businessperson who is absolutely fascinated by brands.”

A month into her new job, Morgan elaborated on that earlier comment. “Glenn Beck is enormously fascinating to me because he is undeniably a national brand,” she said. “He has a strong, multiplatform, devoted audience. It’s an audience that does not have as many information choices from their lens of the world as the readers of the Huffington Post do. That’s one of the reasons I saw this as a really special opportunity.”

The Blaze, which Beck named after the Biblical story of Moses and the burning bush, describes itself as “a news, information, and opinion site” from a conservative point of view. It launched in August and reports about 3 million unique visitors a month. As president of The Blaze, Morgan will focus on establishing the site as a premier digital network serving the loyal audience Beck has built around his three-hour daily radio show and his daily cable network program.

“Betsy has proven herself to be a successful media executive and leader in the digital media space, and her unique perspective and experiences will be valuable in building The Blaze as a vibrant, impactful community,” Beck said in a news release.

Morgan served as the CEO of the Huffington Post from 2007 until 2009, playing a key role in growing the site from 4 million to 22 million unique visitors and doubling its ad revenue. (In early February, AOL announced its purchase of Huffington Post for $315 million.) Prior to her tenure at the Huffington Post, Morgan spent 10 years at CBS News, where she worked as vice president of the news division in the digital sector and later as senior vice president of CBS Interactive and the general manager of CBSNews.com.

While Beck is best known for his political commentary, his interests range far beyond Washington and current events, noted Morgan. She cited as an example his latest book, The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, described as “a powerful guide to personal transformation and fulfillment.” “Glenn has an interest in talking about a lot of lifestyle topics, and The Blaze will do the same,” she added.

As a pioneer in building successful digital media companies, Morgan said she has drawn inspiration and guidance from HBS professor Clay Christensen’s book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. In it, he describes his theory of how disruptive technologies help to redefine the competitive landscape by undercutting established business models. In many ways, Huffington Post and now The Blaze are examples of disruptive technologies, said Morgan. “Christensen’s ideas have had a profound impact on my life and my career.”