Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company founded in Washington, D.C. with operational headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City.[6] The company was established in November 2011 by CEO Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass SB Nation (a sports blog network founded in 2003 by Tyler Bleszinski, Markos Moulitsas, and Jerome Armstrong) and The Verge (a technology news website launched alongside Vox Media). Bankoff had been the CEO for SB Nation since 2009.
Company type
SportsBlogs, Inc.
November 1, 2011
- Jim Bankoff
- Trei Brundrett
85 Broad Street
New York, NY 10004
U.S.
- Epic
- Vox Creative
- Vox Media Studios
- Vox Media Podcast Network
Vox Media owns numerous editorial brands, most prominently New York, The Verge, Vox, SB Nation, Eater, and Polygon. New York further incorporates the websites Intelligencer, The Cut, Vulture, The Strategist, Curbed, and Grub Street. Recode was integrated into Vox, while Racked was shut down. Vox Media's brands are built on Concert, a marketplace for advertising, and Chorus, its proprietary content management system.[7] The company's lines of business include the publishing platform Chorus, Concert, Vox Creative, Vox Entertainment, Vox Media Studios, and the Vox Media Podcast Network. As of 2020, the company operated additional offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, and London. In June 2010, the network featured over 300 sites with over 400 paid writers.[8] As of November 2023, Comscore ranks Vox Media 35th-most popular media company among users from the United States.[9]
History[edit]
Background in sports media[edit]
Tyler Bleszinski, a freelance writer, established Athletics Nation in 2003 as a sports blog that sought to cover the baseball team Oakland Athletics from a fan's perspective. The blog quickly became popular, becoming the second-most popular site on the Blogads network, after Daily Kos. Bleszinski, together with Daily Kos creator Markos Moulitsas and political strategist Jerome Armstrong, then established the sports blog network SB Nation around Athletics Nation in 2005. The popularity of the site led to other sports blogs being incorporated.[8][10] SB Nation hired former AOL executive Jim Bankoff as an advisor in 2008 to assist in its growth. He was promoted to chief executive officer (CEO) in January 2009.[10][11] He showed interest in SB Nation's goal of building a network of niche-oriented sports websites.[10][12] By February 2009, the SB Nation network contained 185 blogs, and in November 2010, Comscore estimated that the site had attracted 5.8 million unique visitors.[13] The 208% increase in unique visitors over November 2009 made SB Nation the fastest-growing sports website the company tracked at the time.[13]
Corporate affairs[edit]
Funding[edit]
In December 2014, Vox Media raised a US$46.5 million round led by the growth equity firm General Atlantic, estimating the media company's value at around $380 million.[39] Participants in Vox Media's previous rounds include Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, and Khosla Ventures. Other funders are Allen & Company, Providence Equity Partners, and various angel investors, including Ted Leonsis, Dan Rosensweig, Jeff Weiner, and Brent Jones.[40] According to sources, the Series C in May 2012, valued Vox Media at $140 million.[41] A Series D valued the company north of $200 million, raising an additional $40 million.[42]
In August 2015, NBCUniversal made a $200 million equity investment in Vox Media, valuing the company at more than $1 billion. Comcast, which owns NBCU, additionally already owned 14% of Vox through other subsidiaries.[5]
Union[edit]
In January 2018, Vox Media agreed to recognize a labor union, the Vox Media Union, which had been formed by its editorial staff with help from the Writers Guild of America, East.[43] On June 6, 2019, more than 300 employees under the Vox Media Union staged a walkout over failed labor agreements between the union and Vox Media, leading to most Vox Media websites temporatily ceasing operation.[44]
The Vox Media Union negotiated with management during the widespread furloughs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. The union "won a guarantee of no layoffs, no additional furloughs, and no additional pay cuts through July 31, along with enhanced severance for any layoffs that occur in August–December."[45]
Litigation[edit]
In September 2017, Vox Media was sued by Cheryl Bradley, a former manager of the "Mile High Hockey" site for SB Nation, which covered the Colorado Avalanche team.[46] The suit alleged that Vox Media had only paid Bradley a $125 stipend per month, despite her being an employee of the company working 30–40 hours (and sometimes up to 50 hours) a week, and had therefore failed to reach obligatory wage and hour protections.[46] Fellow former site managers John Wakefield and Maija Varda were later added to the suit as plaintiffs, and Vox Media unsuccessfully tried to have the case dismissed.[47] The suit was granted class action status by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in March 2019.[47]
A second labor suit was filed as a class action lawsuit in California in September 2018, citing the Fair Labor Standards Act.[48] Because this lawsuit could have covered 258 plaintiffs and damages of up to $6.3 million, Vox Media had the suit moved to the United States federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act.[48]
In several cases, plaintiffs represented by the attorney Richard Liebowitz sued Vox Media over copyright infringement claims.[49]
Businesses[edit]
Chorus[edit]
Conceived in 2008, Chorus was built to be a "next-generation" publishing platform.[83][84] Developed specifically for SB Nation, it facilitates content creation, and implemented commenting and forums, which allowed for company growth, later evolving to analyze viewership and distribute content via various multimedia platforms.[85][86] In 2014, Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell left The Washington Post to join Vox Media, in part because of the publishing platform.[84][87] Additionally, the founders of Curbed, Eater, and The Verge said Chorus was a key reason for partnering with Vox Media.[84] In 2018, Vox Media began to license Chorus as a software as a service (SaaS) business to other publishers,[88] including Funny or Die and The Ringer.[86] The Chicago Sun-Times signed on as the first traditional newspaper to launch on the platform in October 2018.[89][90] Vox announced it would "wind down" Chorus in December 2022 amid a slump in advertising demand, stating that no new customers would be added and that existing customers had 18 months to depart the platform.[91]
Concert[edit]
In April 2016, Vox Media and NBCUniversal launched Concert as a "premium, brand-friendly ad network" to reach more than 150 million people across their digital properties.[92] New York Media, PopSugar, Quartz and Rolling Stone joined the marketplace in May 2018. In May 2018, Comscore estimated the network reaches almost 90 percent of all internet users.[93] With the new partners, Concert launched C-Suite to reach executives among brands such as CNBC, Recode, The Verge, and Vox.[94]
Vox Creative[edit]
Vox Creative is Vox Media's branded entertainment business.[95] In October 2017, Vox Creative expanded to launch The Explainer Studio to bring the explainer format to brand partners.[96] In 2016, Vox Creative's ad for "Applebee's Taste Test" won the Digiday Video Award for Best Video Ad.[97]
Vox Media Studios[edit]
In April 2019, Vox Media opened an operation unit known as Vox Media Studios. It is run by company president Marty Moe and is an umbrella for the Vox Entertainment, Vox Media Podcast, and simultaneously acquired Epic units.[98][99] Vox Media Studios soon announced a new show, Retro Tech, hosted by Marques Brownlee on YouTube.[100]
Vox Entertainment[edit]
In March 2015, Vox Media formed a new division known as Vox Entertainment. The division was created to expand the company's presence in developing online video programming.[101] Vox Entertainment announced new shows in 2018, including American Style on CNN,[102] Explained on Netflix,[103] No Passport Required (hosted by chef Marcus Samuelsson) on PBS,[104] and another named "Glad You Asked" series on YouTube.[105] Vox Entertainment is helmed by Vox Media president Marty Moe.[106] In 2016, vice president of Vox Entertainment, Chad Mumm, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 and Variety's "30 Execs to Watch" list.[107][108]
Vox Media Podcast Network[edit]
The Vox Media Podcast Network is Vox Media's non-fiction audio programming business and has a broad portfolio of audio programming across business, technology, news and policy, sports, and dining.[109] Shows include Stay Tuned with Preet by Preet Bharara,[33] Recode Media with Peter Kafka[110] and Recode Daily;[111] The Verge's The Vergecast; and Vox's The Weeds,[112] Vox Conversations,[113] Today, Explained,[109] Switched on Pop,[114] Impeachment, Explained,[115] Unexplainable[116] and Vox Quick Hits.[117] The network won "Podcast Network of the Year" at the 2020 Adweek Podcast Awards.[118]
Reception[edit]
In 2016, business magazine Inc. nominated Vox Media for "Company of the Year", citing that the company generated approximately $100 million in revenue in 2015, and was attracting 170 million unique users and 800 million content views monthly by 2016.[120] Vox Media was named one of the world's "most innovative" media companies in 2017 by Fast Company for "doubling down on quality content while expanding".[121] Vox Media was also named one of the "50 Great Places to Work" in Washington, D.C., by magazine Washingtonian.[122] The company gained a rating of 95 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which rates businesses on their treatment of LGBT personnel.[123]
