Vox Media

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Vox Media, Inc.

logo
legal form Incorporated
founding August 1, 2002 (as SportsBlogs, Inc.)
Seat United StatesUnited States Washington, DC and New York
management Chairman and CEO : Jim Bankoff
President: Marty Moe
Number of employees 400+
Branch Digital media
Website voxmedia.com
Status: 2010

Vox Media is an American multinational digital media company founded in 2002 by Jerome Armstrong, Tyler Bleszinsky and Markos Moulitsas. The company is based in Washington, DC and New York . Vox Media currently manages 14 brands: SB Nation , The Verge , Polygon , Curbed , Eater , Racked , Vox , Recode , New York Magazine , The Cut , Vulture , The Strategist, Intelligencer and Grub Streets . All websites use the company's own content management system Chorus.

The company has offices in Los Angeles , Chicago , Austin, Texas and San Francisco . About 300 websites with a total of over 400 employees run under the network.

history

Jerome Armstrong, August 2008

The company was founded on August 1, 2002 as SportsBlogs, Inc. by political strategist Jerome Armstrong, freelance writer Tyler Bleszinski and Markos Moulitsas (founder of the political blog Daily Kos ). SportsBlogs' first brand was the sports blog network SB Nation . The website was an offshoot and an extension of Bleszinski's Oakland Athletics blog Athletics Nation , which was supposed to describe what happened to the team from the perspective of the fans. The website's popularity led to the addition of more sports blogs to the network.

In 2008, SB Nation hired former AOL executive Jim Bankoff as CEO to help the company grow. He was interested in SB Nation's idea of ​​creating a network for niche sports websites. In February 2009 the SB-Nation network contained 185 blogs and in November 2010 5.8 million unique visitors visited the websites. With an increase of 208% over November last year, SB Nation was the fastest growing sports website according to Comscore data.

In 2011, Bankoff hired some of the former writers of AOL's technology blog Engadget , like editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky , to start a new technology-driven website. They left AOL after a series of conflicts between Topolsky and Michael Arrington , the founder of TechCrunch and the leak of internal training documents that focused the content strategy for AOL's blogs on profitability. Bankoff felt that a technology-driven website would complement SB Nation because of the overarching target groups.

In November of the same year 2011, now under the name Vox Media, The Verge went online with editor-in-chief Topolsky.

In October 2012, Vox Media founded the computer game website Polygon , led by former Joystiq publisher Christopher Grant.

A year later, Vox Media acquired the Curbed network, which consisted of the real estate blog Curbed , the food blog Eater and the fashion blog Racked .

The news website Vox was founded in April 2014. It has been headed since then by former Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein . Vox's direction is general news, with an emphasis on providing more information on recurring topics within the articles.

In May 2015 Vox Media acquired Recode , a news website about the technology industry, created by Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher , former authors of Wall Street Journals' blog All Things Digital .

In August 2015, NBCUniversal made a $ 200 million equity investment in Vox Media, praising "strong leadership, world-class editorial talent and a unique technology platform."

On November 6, 2019, Vox Media merged with New York Media , the name remains Vox Media. The company now employs over 1250 people and, according to its own information, reaches several hundred million people who use Vox Media.

financing

Vox Media has received capital from Accel Partners , Comcast Ventures, Khosla Ventures , Allen & Company and Providence Equity Partners as well as from investors Ted Leonsis, Dan Rosensweig, Jeff Weiner and Brent Jones. In May 2012, the company was worth $ 140 million. In the Series D funding phase, the value was already over $ 200 million through additional funding of $ 40 million. In December 2014, Vox Media received $ 46.5 million in capital from General Atlantic , equivalent to goodwill of $ 380 million. NBCUniversal made a $ 200 million equity investment in Vox Media in August 2015, equivalent to a company valuation of over $ 1 billion.

Media brands

Vox Media, Inc. consists of 14 media brands : The Verge (technology and culture), Vox (general news), SB Nation (sports), Polygon (computer games), Eater (food and nightlife), Racked (shopping, Beauty and fashion), Curbed (real estate and home), Recode (tech industry), New York Magazine (magazine about lifestyle, culture and politics), The Cut (fashion), Vulture (cinema, television, music and literature), The Strategist ( Shopping), Intelligencer (politics and business) and Grub Street (food and restaurant blog).

Curbed

Curbed logo.svg

Curbed is a New York City-based real estate blog that covers 32 markets in the United States. The website was started in 2004 as a side project by Lockhart Steele, formerly senior editor at Gawker Media. Curbed was acquired by Vox Media when the company bought the Curbed Network in November 2013 for $ 20-30 million. In addition to the main page, Curbed has specific regional pages for Los Angeles , Atlanta , Boston , Cape Cod , Chicago , Detroit , Hamptons , New York City , Miami , New Orleans , Philadelphia , Seattle , Washington, DC , and San Francisco . Around five million users visit the website every month.

Editor of Curbed 's Kelsey Keith ( Editor-in-Chief ).

Eater

Eater logo.svg

Like Curbed, Eater was founded by Lockhart Steele. The website focuses on food and cooking. Among other things, Eater reports on restaurant openings and new food trends. The best-known contributions are the "Heat Maps" and "38 Best New Restaurants". Shortly after being taken over by Vox Media in 2013, Eater underwent a relaunch. In 2014 the switch to the Chorus platform took place. An average of around nine million users visit the website each month.

Editor of Eater 's Amanda Kludt ( Editor-in-Chief ) and Helen Rosner ( Executive Editor functions), Sonia Chopra as Managing Editor ( Managing Editor ).

new York

New York Magazine Logo.svg

New York is a bi-weekly magazine on cultural, political topics, with a particular focus on New York City. The first edition was published in 1968. David Haskell has been editor-in-chief since 2019 .

Polygon

Polygon logo.svg

In January 2012, Vox Media hired Chris Grant, former editor-in-chief at Joystiq , to start a gaming website. Brian Crecente, editor-in-chief of Kotaku and Russ Pitts, editor-in-chief of The Escapist , were also hired to run the site. Pitts left Polygon in June 2014.

The website began under the title Vox Games , which was never intended to be the final name. On April 6, 2012, the name Polygon was announced. The website went online under this name on October 25, 2012. The website is responsive and contains news from the gaming and entertainment world as well as reviews and longer features . Around 20 million users visit Polygon every month .

Polygon is edited by Chris Grant ( Editor-in-Chief ). Michael McWhertor ( Managing Editor ) will serve as the Chief Editor , while Brian Crecente will act as Executive Editor .

Racked

Racked logo.svg

Racked is a fashion and lifestyle blog that was acquired by Vox Media together with the Curbed Network in November 2013. In December 2014, the website had 11.2 million page views and eight million users. In addition to the main page, Racked , like Curbed , has specific regional pages for Los Angeles, New York City, Miami and San Francisco.

Chief editors of Racked are Britt Aboutaleb ( Editor-in-Chief ) and Julia Rubin ( Executive Editor ).

Recode

Recode logo 2016.svg

Recode is a site for technology news , with an emphasis on the Silicon Valley . It was founded on January 2, 2014 by the former AllThingsD editors Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher . Vox Media took over the site in May 2015. On average, around five million users visit the website each month.

Dan Frommer ( Editor-in-Chief ) and Kara Swisher ( Executive Editor ) act as editors -in-chief , while Edmund Lee ( Managing Editor ) and Peter Kafka ( Senior Editor, Media ) take on the role of editorial management.

SB nation

Jim Bankoff, 2014

SB Nation is a web content focused sports network that manages over 300 websites, each with their own name, url , brand, focus, audience, editors and guidelines. The sports network covers teams from the MLB , NBA , NFL , MLS and NHL , as well as NASCAR , MMA , college sports, cycling and other sports. English-language coverage of the Bundesliga is provided through websites about FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund .

In February 2009 there were 185 blogs left. In November 2010, Comscore counted 5.8 million visitors to the SB Nation blog network . This was a 208% increase from 1.9 million visitors in November 2009. According to CEO Jim Bankoff, SB Nation had 12 million unique visitors and over 100 million page views per month in December 2010. Optimization for mobile platforms and international expansion, particularly Europe, were set as goals for the next few months.

Baseball columnist Rob Neyer, who previously worked for market leader ESPN for 15 years , joined SB Nation in February 2011 . In March founded SB Nation website Baseball Nation . In addition to Neyer, Jason Brannon, Carson Cistulli , Jeff Sullivan and Grant Brisbee also write for the site.

In the same month, SB Nation's network grew to over 300 websites, mostly maintained by part-time editors. According to Comscore, the November 2012 audience for those interested in sports news in the United States was 130 million people a month. ESPN's 45 million visitors were still over SB Nations 9.4 million, but ESPN lost five million users each year while SB Nation grew 20%. According to Vox Media, SB Nation counted 50 million users per month and 190 million page views in June 2013 .

The General Manager of SB Nation is Kevin Lockland. The editor-in- chief is occupied by Elena Bergeron ( Editor-in-Chief ).

The Verge

The Verge Logo 2016.svg

The Verge is a Manhattan , New York City- based website that features cutting-edge technology coverage. The site went online on November 1, 2011. The media network publishes news, extended editorials , product reviews, podcasts, and an entertainment show.

The The-Verge -Mitgründer Joshua Topolsky , to March 2011, editor in chief of Engadget , left together with other editors, including Nilay Patel , and Joanna Stern , Engadget . They then started the blog This Is My Next , and on November 1, 2011 The Verge went online. Since 2014 the editor-in- chief has consisted of Nilay Patel ( Editor-in-Chief ) and Dieter Bohn ( Executive Editor ).

Vox

Vox logo.svg

The approach of the Vox website is to present complex topics from current world affairs in an understandable way, especially in the areas of politics, law, business, pop culture, food and science. About a month after it was founded in April 2014, the site reached five million users. In 2016 this figure was around 50 million.

As editor of Vox Lauren Williams acts ( Editor-in-Chief ). Co-founders are Melissa Bell, Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein, who is also a reporter ( Editor-at-Large ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Ortutay: Digital Media Hub Vox Valued at $ 1B as NBCUniversal Invests. In: Inc. Mansueto Ventures, August 13, 2015, accessed December 7, 2016 .
  2. ^ Leslie Kaufman: Vox Takes Melding of Journalism and Technology to a New Level. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, April 6, 2014, accessed December 7, 2016 .
  3. ^ A b Joseph Plambeck: Sports-Centric Web Sites Expand, and Bias Is Welcome. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, June 6, 2010, accessed December 7, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b c Ronny Kerr: SB Nation scores $ 10.5 million third round. In: Vator. Vator, Inc., November 8, 2010, accessed December 7, 2016 .
  5. ^ Jerome Armstrong. In: CrunchBase . AOL , accessed December 7, 2016 .
  6. ↑ a b c Kevin Lincoln: THE RAID ON AOL: How Vox Pillaged Engadget And Founded An Empire. In: Business Insider. Axel Springer SE , January 9, 2012, accessed on December 7, 2016 (English).
  7. ↑ a b c Lou Dubois: The Evolution of Sports Blog Nation. In: Inc. Mansueto Ventures, August 20, 2010, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  8. ^ Steven Overly: SB Nation's sports blogger collective sees bias as a plus. In: The Washington Post . Nash Holdings LLC, December 20, 2010, accessed December 7, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Chloe Albanesius: Engadget's Topolsky, Former Editors Starting New Rival Tech Site. In: PC Magazine . Ziff Davis , April 4, 2011, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  10. ^ Brian Solomon: The Inside Story Of Polygon, The Verge's New Gaming Sister-Site. In: Forbes . Forbes Media LLC., October 24, 2012, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  11. ^ Leslie Kaufman: Vox Media Buying Curbed.com Network of Sites. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, November 10, 2013, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  12. ↑ David Carr: Ezra Klein Is Joining Vox Media as Web Journalism Asserts Itself. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, January 26, 2014, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  13. ^ Leslie Kaufman: Vox Takes Melding of Journalism and Technology to a New Level. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, April 6, 2014, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  14. ^ A b Sydney Ember: Vox Media Adds ReCode to Its Stable of Websites. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, May 26, 2015, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  15. ^ Jon Brodkin: Comcast-owned NBC buys part of Vox Media and its stable of news sites. In: Ars Technica . Condé Nast, August 12, 2015, accessed December 20, 2016 .
  16. ^ Jim Bankoff, Pam Wasserstein: Vox Media welcomes New York Media, moving ahead as one company. In: voxmedia.com. Vox Media, November 6, 2019, accessed on November 12, 2019 .
  17. ^ Marc Tracy, Edmund Lee: Vox Media Acquires New York Magazine, Chronicler of the Highbrow and Lowbrow. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, September 24, 2019, accessed November 12, 2019 .
  18. ^ Caroline McCarthy: Blog network SportsBlog Nation scores funding. In: CNET . CBS Interactive , October 29, 2008, accessed December 22, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Rafat Ali: Updated: Sports Blog Site SBNation Gets $ 8 Million More, From Comcast And Others. In: Gigaom. Knowingly, Inc., July 16, 2009, accessed December 22, 2016 .
  20. ^ A b Brian Solomon: Meet Vox Media: The Digital Upstart That Wants To Be Conde Nast 2.0. In: Forbes . Forbes, Inc., December 6, 2012, accessed December 22, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Rizza Sta. Ana: Vox Media aims to obtain USD40 million funding via Accel Partners. In: Venture Capital Post. October 16, 2013, accessed December 22, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Catherine Shu: Vox Media Raises $ 46.5M At A Reported $ 380M Valuation. In: TechCrunch . AOL , November 30, 2014, accessed December 22, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Brian Stelter: NBCUniversal Invests Big in Vox Media. In: CNNMoney . Time Warner , August 12, 2015, accessed December 22, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Anthony Ha: Vox Media Raises $ 200M From NBCUniversal. In: TechCrunch . AOL , August 12, 2015, accessed December 22, 2016 .
  25. ^ Vox Media. In: CrunchBase . AOL , accessed January 3, 2017 .
  26. ^ Luke I. Alpert: Comcast Invests $ 200 Million in Vox Media. In: The Wall Street Journal . Dow Jones & Company , August 12, 2015, accessed January 3, 2017 .
  27. ↑ a b c Jessi Hempel: Vox Media acquires Curbed Network for $ 20-30M. In: Fortune . Time Inc. , November 11, 2013, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  28. ↑ curbed.com Analytics. In: SimilarWeb. SimilarWeb LTD, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  29. ↑ Curbed. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  30. ↑ a b Eater. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Sam Grobart: How Google Has Completely Botched Zagat. In: Bloomberg . Bloomberg LP, August 1, 2013, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  32. ↑ Michelle Castillo: Eater's Redesign Is a Test For Vox Media's Chorus Platform. Can CMS allow food brand to take the next step? In: Adweek . Prometheus Global Media , September 22, 2014, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  33. ↑ eater.com Analytics. In: SimilarWeb. SimilarWeb LTD, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  34. ↑ Michael Rolon: Russ Pitts Bids Farewell to Polygon. In: Gamer Headlines. June 18, 2014, archived from the original on December 23, 2016 ; accessed on December 23, 2016 (English).
  35. ↑ Christopher Grant: Vox Games is dead. Welcome, polygon. In: polygon. Vox Media, April 6, 2012, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  36. ↑ Christopher Grant: Welcome to Polygon! It's a website (finally). In: polygon. Vox Media, October 24, 2012, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  37. ↑ polygon.com Analytics. In: SimilarWeb. SimilarWeb LTD, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  38. ↑ polygon. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  39. ↑ Alexandra Steigrad: Vox Media Looks to Racked for Growth. In: Women's Wear Daily. Penske Media Corporation, February 10, 2015, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  40. ↑ Racked. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  41. ↑ recode.net Analytics. In: SimilarWeb. SimilarWeb LTD, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  42. ↑ Recode. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  43. ^ SB Nation Directory. In: SB Nation. Vox Media, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  44. ^ Steven Overly: SB Nation's sports blogger collective sees bias as a plus. In: The Washington Post . Nash Holdings LLC , December 20, 2010, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  45. ^ Andy Plesser: The New Game in Sports Journalism: SB Nation Claims 100 Million Monthly Views - Going Global with Soccer Coverage. In: Beet.TV. Beet Media, LLC, December 10, 2010, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  46. ^ Darren Rovell: One of the Originals, Rob Neyer, Leaves ESPN.com for SB Nation. In: CNBC . NBCUniversal , February 1, 2011, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  47. ^ Rob Neyer: Introducing… Baseball Nation. In: SB Nation. Vox Media, March 30, 2011, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  48. ^ Dan Orlando: Vox Media says design helps charge SB Nation. In: New York Business Journal. American City Business Journals, June 19, 2013, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  49. ↑ SB Nation. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  50. ↑ David Carr: No Longer Shackled by AOL. In: The New York Times . The New York Times Company, April 3, 2011, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  51. ↑ This is my next ... Archived from the original on October 31, 2011 ; accessed on December 23, 2016 (English).
  52. ^ Daniel Roberts: Topolsky and Bankoff on Engadget, SB Nation, and the new tech site that's bringing them together. In: Fortune . Time Inc. , October 26, 2011, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  53. ↑ The Verge. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  54. ↑ a b Vox. Vox Media, accessed June 18, 2018 .
  55. ↑ vox.com Analytics. In: SimilarWeb. SimilarWeb LTD, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  56. ^ Ezra Klein : Lauren Williams is the new editor-in-chief of Vox. In: Vox. Vox Media, September 26, 2017, accessed on September 27, 2017 .