{"id":20795,"date":"2026-06-05T12:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/?p=20795"},"modified":"2026-06-09T09:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:25:07","slug":"media-business-insider-never-fails-as-a-source-of-crap-travel-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2026\/06\/05\/media-business-insider-never-fails-as-a-source-of-crap-travel-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Business Insider never fails as a source of dumb travel stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Multiple numbers in every headline, the listicles, &#8220;my mistakes&#8221; and every story is written by, and uses a profile pix, of a 20-something female freelance writer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"841\" height=\"859\" src=\"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-374.png?wsr\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20796\" srcset=\"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-374.png 841w, https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-374-587x600.png 587w, https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-374-768x784.png 768w, https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-374-264x270.png 264w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 841px) 100vw, 841px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Business Insider has morphed in to what used to be called &#8220;women&#8217;s magazines&#8221; &#8211; with titles like Good Housekeeping, McCall&#8217;s, or Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Elle, etc. Business Insider is targeted primarily at 20-something young women. Male readers are not sought nor desired by Business Insider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every story is the same formula &#8211; its not about the destination but the personal romance of the writer. The writer is the focus of their own story &#8211; which is why the genre favors narcissists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, every story is virtually identical &#8211; its the modern Reader&#8217;s Digest of easily digestible nonsense to replace your time doom scrolling on your smart phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The &#8220;Romance Abroad&#8221; Archetype<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This genre of storytelling features young, often freelance, female writers who document their experiences moving to or traveling in foreign countries, where they meet a partner, fall in love and choose to stay. These stories function as modern digital equivalents of traditional women&#8217;s magazine features, offering a blend of escapism, lifestyle aspiration, and romantic fulfillment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Narrative Structure<\/strong>: The typical arc involves a protagonist leaving her home (often the US or UK) &#8211; often as a victim &#8211; the US is too expensive, too much crime, blah blah blah &#8211; then experiencing culture shock, finding love with a local or fellow expat, and building a life abroad. This mirrors the &#8220;happily ever after&#8221; trope found in romance novels.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Recent Examples<\/strong>: Stories such as &#8220;They Left America for a Job Abroad, Then Retired Happily in Thailand&#8221; (May 2026) and &#8220;What Traveling to 167 Countries Taught Couple About Relationship&#8221; (March 2024) exemplify this trend. These pieces focus heavily on the emotional and relational journey rather than the logistics of travel.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Target Audience<\/strong>: The content appeals to readers seeking validation for their own desires to escape conventional life paths, offering a &#8220;cottage core&#8221; fantasy of simplified living and romantic destiny in exotic locales.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who Writes These Stories and Why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Freelance Demographics<\/strong>: Business Insider actively solicits personal essays from freelancers, many of whom are young women building portfolios in travel and lifestyle journalism. The &#8220;personal angle&#8221; is explicitly encouraged by editors like Mia de Graaf, who looks for stories with a &#8220;strong personal angle&#8221; and &#8220;tension.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Click-Driven Content<\/strong>: These narratives perform well in terms of engagement and clicks, incentivizing editors to commission similar pieces. The &#8220;first-person&#8221; format allows for a relatable, conversational tone that resonates with the site&#8217;s &#8220;disruptive go-getter&#8221; demographic, even when the content leans towards fantasy.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Formulaic<\/strong>: The stores all follow the same formula, making them easy to churn out quickly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Comparison to Traditional Media<\/strong>: Just as traditional women&#8217;s magazines like&nbsp;Cosmopolitan&nbsp;or&nbsp;Glamour&nbsp;historically featured fiction and essays about finding love and reinventing oneself,&nbsp;Business Insider&#8217;s Travel section has become a digital hub for similar content, updated for the era of remote work and digital nomadism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have an entire column on the topic over here: <a href=\"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/travel\/2026\/01\/21\/start-here-the-myth-that-americans-can-easily-move-abroad\/\">Start here: The Myth that Americans Can Easily Move Abroad \u2013 Coldstreams Travel and Global Thinking<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bias in the Business Insider romance novels is apparent in my review of 400 stories (since up to about 500 but have not updated the data yet)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of the Business Insider stories in these categories, here is a breakout of the subjects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>40% single white female<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>9% single BIPOC female<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>49% total involve single females <\/strong>(some of whom then married a foreigner \u2013 I counted them as single if they were single at the time they moved abroad).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>29% families + 4% BIPOC families (almost always written from the women\u2019s perspective)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>10% single gay\/lesbian or couples<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>7% single white males<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1% single BIPOC males<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Just 8% involve single males versus 49% for single females. In fact, stories featuring gay couples exceed those with single males.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(The data set includes stories in some other publications besides BI, but BI accounts for the vast majority)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Males basically do not exist as subject in these stores. Even for those involving a family, the story is written from the women&#8217;s perspective and the male in the story is often barely mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hilariously, Business Insider says they support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion &#8211; which by their own publication record is a lie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And you wonder why the media has zero credibility and reporters are viewed with disdain?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The listicles, the numbers in the headlines, &#8220;my mistakes&#8217;, every formulaic crappy piece of writing possible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-stupidity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20842,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20795\/revisions\/20842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}