Vox Media

• 1. Founding And Early Expansion

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  Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett established Vox Media in November 2011 within Washington, D.C. The new company immediately absorbed SB Nation, a sports blog network founded by Tyler Bleszinski in 2003. That same month, they launched The Verge as a technology news website to complement the existing sports content. Joshua Topolsky arrived from AOL's Engadget to lead The Verge as its editor-in-chief. This strategic pairing of sports and tech sites created an initial audience overlap that Bankoff had identified years earlier. By February 2009, SB Nation alone hosted 185 blogs with over 400 paid writers. Comscore estimated 5.8 million unique visitors for the network by November 2010. The growth rate hit 208 percent between late 2009 and late 2010, making it the fastest-growing sports site tracked at the time.

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• 2. Brand Portfolio Evolution

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  Vox Media acquired Curbed Network in November 2013, bringing Eater and Racked into its fold. Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal originally founded Eater in 2005 to cover New York City dining. The food network expanded to nearly 20 cities by 2012 before joining Vox. In April 2014, Ezra Klein, Melissa Bell, and Matthew Yglesias launched Vox as a general interest news service. They focused on providing context rather than just reporting events. The company integrated Recode into Vox under the name Recode by Vox in May 2019 after acquiring it from Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher in 2015. New York Magazine joined the family when Vox Media purchased its parent company, New York Media, in September 2019. This acquisition included Intelligencer, The Cut, Vulture, Grub Street, and Curbed. Racked was folded into Vox in September 2018 due to shifting priorities. Polygon launched in October 2012 as a video game website led by Christopher Grant.

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• 3. Labor Relations And Unionization

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  The Vox Media Union formed with help from the Writers Guild of America, East in January 2018. More than 300 employees staged a walkout on the 6th of June 2019 over failed labor agreements. Most Vox Media websites temporarily ceased operation during that strike. Cheryl Bradley sued the company in September 2017 for paying her only $125 per month despite working 30 to 40 hours weekly. John Wakefield and Maija Varda later joined the suit as plaintiffs. The United States District Court granted class action status to the case in March 2019. A second lawsuit filed in California cited the Fair Labor Standards Act and potentially covered 258 plaintiffs. In December 2019, Vox Media terminated more than 200 contracts of California-based freelance writers following California Assembly Bill 5. They replaced these workers with 20 full-time staff writers instead. During the pandemic furloughs, the union secured guarantees against layoffs through the 31st of July 2020. Staffers at New York Magazine are represented by a separate union under Newsguild.

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• 4. Financial Growth And Investment

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  General Atlantic led a funding round in December 2014 estimating Vox Media's value at roughly one billion dollars. Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, and Khosla Ventures participated in previous rounds. Ted Leonsis, Dan Rosensweig, Jeff Weiner, and Brent Jones served as angel investors. NBCUniversal invested in August 2015, valuing the company at over two billion dollars. Comcast already owned 14 percent of Vox through other subsidiaries before that deal. Penske Media Corporation became the largest shareholder in February 2023 after acquiring a 20 percent stake. Jay Penske joined the board immediately following the transaction. Group Nine Media was acquired on the 22nd of February 2022 for an undisclosed sum. Investors including Warner Bros. Discovery now own 25 percent of Vox. The Series C round in May 2012 valued the media company at $140 million. A subsequent Series D raised additional capital while pushing valuation north of one billion dollars again.

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• 5. Technological Infrastructure Development

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  Chorus launched as a next-generation publishing platform developed specifically for SB Nation in 2008. Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell left The Washington Post to join Vox partly because of this software infrastructure. Funny or Die and The Ringer licensed Chorus as a software-as-a-service business starting in 2018. The Chicago Sun-Times became the first traditional newspaper to launch on the platform in October 2018. Vox announced it would wind down Chorus in December 2022 due to advertising demand slumps. Existing customers received 18 months to depart the platform before migration to WordPress VIP began in 2023. Concert launched in April 2016 as a premium ad network reaching over 150 million people. New York Media, PopSugar, Quartz, and Rolling Stone joined the marketplace by May 2018. Comscore estimated the network reached almost 90 percent of all internet users with these new partners. C-Suite launched within Concert to target executives among brands like CNBC and Recode.

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