What does our Media Studios team do?: An interview with Media Studios operation manager Corey Protin
Insider Inc.’s Media Studios is the company's production support lifeline. Their responsibilities can be broken down into five main categories:
Equipment management: Purchasing and maintaining video, photo, and broadcast gear and software.
Studios management: Managing the physical studios, responsible for construction of any new studios, managing all bookings, and running all internal productions.
Production design: Building sets, sourcing props, and designing backdrops.
Live production and event support: Directing, producing, and hiring freelance staff for any internal or external live productions.
Technical standards maintenance: Designating and ensuring various technical requirements surrounding video production and editing are met.
There are currently three people on the Media Studios team, and six others serve in various support functions. The team also has a rolodex of freelancers on call.
We recently sat down with Corey Protin, our Media Studios operations manager, to learn more about the team and find out what’s on the horizon. Here’s our conversation.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Take us through your background, how you got started at Insider Inc., and how you built Insider Inc.’s Media Studios team.
I have a broadcast education background, but most of my professional experience has been in “new media.” Before coming to Business Insider in 2015, I worked for the Tribeca Film Festival, Time magazine, freelanced for a bit with my LLC, and then did a stint at Inc. Magazine.
When I first joined Insider Inc., I was brought on as the very first external video hire for the launch of TechInsider.io. Over the next two and a half years, I produced videos that ran the gamut of topics — from explainers, like this one about nuclear warheads, to sponsored series, like Rising Stars with Neil Degrasse Tyson.
In 2017, Business Insider had severely outgrown its office space in New York City’s Flatiron District and our executive management team decided to build a new headquarters, from scratch, in the Financial District. This new space would include broadcast quality studios spaces. It was a vast leap into the future for a company that, at the time, didn’t have any studios at all. I was tapped to lead that charge as Business Insider’s first studio operation manager.
In January 2018, Insider moved into its new offices. A month later, we unveiled our six new studios.
How is the team structured? What other teams do you work with within the organization?
Currently, we’re a part of the admin team, reporting up to our finance department. As such, we work with just about everyone at the company, including our events team (on our flagship Ignition events), our sales and marketing teams (on tentpole events, like WEF and Cannes Lions), our Insider Studios team (on sponsored series like Travel Dares), our Business Insider Today team (on all in-house productions), our podcast team (on production for podcasts like Brought To You By), our operations team (on construction projects like building the new studios), our service journalism team, our IT team, and many others.
How has the team grown and evolved since you joined?
When this division was created in 2017, it consisted of one person — me. Since then, we’ve added two more full-time employees. Kristen Maurer and Keri Balnis run a lot of the day-to-day operations. Kristen is our media studios operator and is responsible for operating a lot of our shoots. Keri is our studio coordinator and handles equipment, BIT productions, and much more. Their hard work and dedication keep everything afloat. Without them, it wouldn’t all be possible.
We’ve also deputized a handful of others and have part-time support staff. Each remote office has a designated “studio coordinator,” who works with us to manage remote studios and equipment pools.
Our support staff includes:
Chelsea Pineda, video team training coordinator
Nicole Raucheisen and Nicola Fernandez, media studio producers
Clancy Morgan, remote media studio manager (Chicago)
David Ibekwe, remote media studio manager (London)
Conner Blake, remote media studio manager (Los Angeles)
Hollis Johnson, visual features contact
What’s next for the Media Studios team? Can you share anything that you’re working on or are planning for in the coming months or years?
Yes! During Q1 and into Q2 of 2020, we’ve been building new studios and making significant upgrades to our existing facility. The project is something I’ve been working toward for more than a year now. We will be adding three new studio spaces, upgrading various aspects of our existing studios to enable future expansion, upgrading various prosumer equipment to more traditional broadcast equipment, and more.
The company’s rapid growth in video formats has pushed us further and further into the broadcast video space. With these new upgrades, we’ll be even more competitive in the broadcast sphere.
What have been some of the coolest or most memorable projects you’ve worked on here?
To date, nothing tops our first-ever live town hall with then-presidential candidate Andrew Yang. This was the first time the company had ever done a show to this scale. It was a live broadcast event that Insider ran by itself. No freelancers. No production companies. Every single crew member was an employee.
The team that produces “Business Insider Today,” our daily Facebook Watch show, and the Media Studios team shared responsibilities. The BI Today team handled the content and talent, edited and created the packages, sourced the audience, dealt with various event management duties, and managed overall editorial direction. The Media Studios handled the technicalities, like staffing positions, hiring contractors, sourcing sets, designing lighting, and blocking shots.
Since then, we’ve hosted and produced two other political events, another Town Hall with then-presidential candidate Seth Moulton and the first, and probably only, 2020 Republican presidential debate with Bill Weld and Joe Walsh. I directed and worked very closely with the Business Insider Today team to produce both.
If you weren’t at Insider Inc., what would you be doing?
Honestly? I’d probably start building my LLC, “Protin Pictures.” I’ve always felt a draw toward entrepreneurship. And it’s always something I’ve wanted to delve back into.