Digital Trends

• 1. Introduction

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  Digital Trends started in Lake Oswego, Oregon in June 2006, the creation of two co-founders named Ian Bell and Dan Gaul. The site they built would eventually draw over 40 million visits per month, according to the analytics firm SimilarWeb. How did a tech outlet launched in a small city outside Portland grow into a publication that rivals CNET and The Verge in monthly traffic? And what does its story reveal about the economics of digital media in the years when advertising dollars chased every click?

• 2. From Lake Oswego to Portland

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  Three years after its founding, in May 2009, Digital Trends relocated its headquarters from Lake Oswego into the US Bancorp Tower in Downtown Portland, Oregon. The move placed the company in the heart of a real city center, signaling ambition beyond its suburban origins. A second office opened in New York City in 2012, and the company eventually established a presence in Chicago and other locations as well. Throughout this expansion, Digital Trends remained a privately funded and owned corporation, never taking the public-markets path that some of its peers pursued.

• 3. What the Site Covers

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  Smartphones, video games and systems, laptops, PCs and peripherals, televisions, home theater systems, digital cameras, video cameras, and tablets all fall within Digital Trends' editorial scope. The site publishes news, reviews, guides, how-to articles, videos, and podcasts. Its parent company, Digital Trends Media Group, also operates The Manual, a men's lifestyle site, which points to the company's appetite for audience segments beyond pure tech enthusiasts.

• 4. Spanish-Language Expansion

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  In December 2014, Digital Trends launched Digital Trends en Español, a Spanish-language version aimed at Spanish-speaking consumers worldwide. Editor-in-Chief Juan Garcia leads its international team. Among those journalists is Milenka Pena, who serves as News Editor and holds an Emmy Award nomination as well as a Silver Done Award. The launch was not a simple translation project; the site offers original reporting distinct from the English edition, positioning it as a standalone editorial voice rather than a dubbed copy of the flagship.

• 5. Traffic Surge and Awards Growth

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  September 2015 brought a notable milestone: Digital Trends claimed a 100-percent increase in traffic, reaching over 24 million unique readers globally and more than 13 million U.S. readers in that month alone. The site would go on to reach approximately 30 million readers per month, who collectively view over 100 million pages. That same year the company expanded its awards program to international trade shows, adding Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and IFA in Berlin to its coverage. The site also introduced its first Car of the Year awards and Smart Home awards, reflecting editorial investment in automotive and connected-home beats. The company simultaneously launched DT Design, an in-house creative ad agency focused on branded content and high-impact advertising units.

• 6. The Conde Nast Talks

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  In late summer 2016, Re/Code reported on a deal in which Conde Nast was negotiating to acquire Digital Trends for $120 million. The report noted the site was on track to generate $30 million in revenue that year and roughly $6 million in profit. Co-founder Ian Bell denied that formal talks were underway, though he acknowledged the company "is periodically approached by would-be buyers." Digiday weighed in as well, comparing Digital Trends' traffic favorably to CNET and The Verge, and placing it ahead of USA Today Tech, Yahoo! Tech, and Business Insider's Tech Insider. No acquisition followed.

• 7. Leadership and Later Years

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  From 2014 to 2021, Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Kaplan led Digital Trends' editorial team, working alongside co-founders Bell and Gaul. Kaplan left the site in May 2021. Andrew Martonik, formerly the site's Mobile Section Editor, was listed on the About Us page as interim editor in chief. In June 2020, as the company published Black Lives Matter support statements, employees publicly described racial bias at a 2018 "Gin and Juice" party and harassment at a 2017 holiday party; Bell responded by saying he is "not a proponent of cancel culture." That same year, Travis Stovall, the mayor of Gresham, Oregon, joined Digital Trends' board of directors. By 2021, the company had built its advertising business around intent-based audience segmentation and partnered with Valnet, the parent company of Screen Rant, to pool resources and pursue larger news audiences.