Penske Media Corp., Deadline’s parent company, has made a strategic investment in Vox Media and is now its largest shareholder. Vox is the owner of media brands such as Vox, New York Magazine, The Verge, The Cut, Eater, Vulture, The Strategist, Polygon, SB Nation, Curbed and several more. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The companies will continue to operate independently after the transaction.
The company, which publishes New York magazine, The Verge and numerous other brands, joins a parade of tech and media companies cutting back staff amid economic uncertainty.
ProPublica and Vox Media plan to give back journalism grants from the indicted crypto tycoon. Other newsrooms have been less clear.
The technology writer and commentator will leave The New York Times, where she was a columnist and podcast host, next month as she plans to launch a new podcast with Vox Media. The new series will serve as a companion show to Pivot, the podcast Swisher hosts with Scott Galloway for Vox’s New York magazine.
The Vox Media Union’s contract expires at midnight on June 13. The union is seeking cost-of-living raises and affordable benefits.
Vox Media has inked a deal to acquire Group Nine, a leading collection of multiplatform media brands including The Dodo, NowThis, PopSugar, Thrillist and Seeker. The portfolio will join Vox Media brands including SB Nation, New York Magazine, The Verge, Vox, Eater, The Cut, Vulture, Polygon and The Strategist, along with its rapidly growing podcast and studios business, and diversified revenue model across advertising, content distribution, commerce and subscriptions.
Exclusives
Google has announced the recipients of the second round of the 2020 GNI Innovation Challenge for North America. The 33 projects tackle diversity, equity and inclusion in local news.
Why CEO Jim Bankoff would rather you compare the digital network to Disney than The New York Times.
Vox Media laid off about 6% of its staff on Thursday, citing the pandemic’s impact on revenue across the media industry. The digital media company, which owns a namesake news site as well as The Verge, Eater and the popular biweekly New York Magazine, employs about 1,200 people. This means the layoffs amount to 72 employees. The majority of these employees were already furloughed in April at the height of the US’ coronavirus pandemic.
Vox Media, the owner of media properties including New York Magazine, The Verge, SBNation and Eater, has informed its worker unions to prepare for company-wide layoffs, according to people familiar with the matter. Vox spoke with union leaders Monday to inform them of their plan to cut staff, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Vox furloughed about 100 employees in April, or 9% of its staff, until July 31 as Covid-19 affected advertising budgets.
Vox Media, owner of sites including Vox, The Verge and New York magazine, is furloughing about 9% of its employees for three months. The decision is one of several measures the digital media company announced to cut costs after the coronavirus pandemic decimated its revenue sources.
After more than 50 years and 44 National Magazine Awards, New York finds a home with a digital-media powerhouse.
Vox Media, the owner of news and lifestyle websites like SB Nation and Eater, is laying off about 50 employees, a sign that Facebook’s recent algorithm changes are forcing publishers to shift strategies. The cuts were confined mostly to workers who produce social media video for Vox’s Media’s fashion site, Racked; Curbed, which focuses on real estate; and sports-oriented SB Nation
A doubter at Vox Media, where one of the latest organizing efforts has begun, became a believer — no thanks to Twitter, he said.
Vox Media has launched a new branded content division that will create its signature wonky “explainer” videos for advertisers.
Bill Simmons has signed a deal to move his sports and culture website, The Ringer, off Medium and onto Vox Media’s platform. While Simmons will maintain ownership of the site he launched last summer, the Ringer will become part of the portfolio of brands Vox offers to marketers alongside its own properties like SB Nation, the Verge and Eater.
Condé Nast, NBCUniversal and Vox Media joined forces Thursday to deliver mobile video and branded content across all three of their digital networks. The partnership between the TV network giant and key publishers to sell ads across all three of the companies’ properties is a move to demonstrate scale and reach — and to compete with Facebook and Google. The goal is also to reach millennials.
NBCUniversal Invests $200M In Vox Media
The deal values privately held Vox at $1 billion. “Vox Media has a great portfolio of premium digital brands that deeply engage broad audiences,” said Steve Burke, CEO, NBCUniversal. “Vox Media has strong leadership, top editorial talent and a unique technology platform. We are excited to be making this investment and building a collaborative partnership involving editorial content, advertising and technology.”
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is scouting out several companies in the world of new media for potential deals as the cable giant tries to court young consumers who are watching less traditional television. The company has engaged in preliminary discussions with several online publishers including Vice Media, BuzzFeed and Business Insider, and has discussed increasing its roughly 14% stake in Vox Media, according to people familiar with the matter. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.
Vox operates several news and entertainment sites, including The Verge, which also covers tech news. In an online statement, Re/code founders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg said they will continue to operate their site separately but may occasionally collaborate with The Verge.
$380 million: That’s the value of digital media startup Vox Media following its latest big cash infusion. It’s a stunning number — stunning just like the August investment that valued BuzzFeed at $850 million. So how’s Vox going to make enough money to justify it?
