Year in Review

Welcome to our 2015 Vox Media year in review: a collection of highlights and some of our favorite moments from The Verge, Vox.com, Eater, SB Nation, Polygon, Racked, Curbed, Re/code, our brand marketing division Vox Creative, and our technology and design backbone, Vox Product. It was an outstanding year for our company by any measure and we’re tremendously grateful to our team members and partners who contributed to our accomplishments, which should serve as inspiration for an even more impressive 2016. Enjoy!

Highlights

  •  
    Vox Media Adds Re/code to Its Stable of Websites

    “Re/code, the news website led by the veteran journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, is being acquired by Vox Media….Re/code will become part of Vox’s expanding digital empire…[and] gain access to Vox’s publishing platform, Chorus, which has been a key in luring marquee journalists including Ezra Klein.”

  •  
    Vox Media Sings the Praises of Chorus: Advertisers can now tap into native content platform

    “[Vox Media] believes part of that secret sauce is its proprietary platform Chorus—and now it's letting brands tap into that magic. At its first upfront presentation Thursday Vox announced it was going to let brands use the platform for their native content through a service called Chorus for Advertisers. DigitasLBi was named the first agency partner.”

  •  
    Vox Media Launches Entertainment Division, Signs With WME

    “Vox Media is looking to video for its future….[It] is launching Vox Entertainment to build out its online video capabilities and talent partnerships. ‘Our approach is to become a programming company as much as an editorial company,’ says creative director Chad Mumm, who will run Vox Entertainment out of Los Angeles.”

  •  
    Comcast Invests $200 Million in Vox Media

    “Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal will make a $200 million strategic investment in Vox Media, upping its stake in the digital media firm and creating a partnership to help the television giant better connect with younger audiences, the companies said Wednesday. The equity investment will give Vox Media a post-money valuation of about $1 billion.”

  •  
    Find Vox on Snapchat Discover

    We've come up with something that we are incredibly proud of: a truly mobile-first multimedia experience with great performance and beautiful graphics. You'll find our editions every day at 6 am, frequently — though not always — with the entire edition focused on a single topic or theme.

  •  
    The agency view on Vox Media: ‘The modern-day Condé Nast’

    “If you’re looking for doubters, don’t look among the ad-buying community, which sees in Vox truly premium content, reach with millennials and a state-of-the-art publishing platform. ‘The modern-day Condé Nast,’ said Gian LaVecchia, managing partner, digital content strategy at MEC.”

  •  
    Media People: Vox Media’s Jim Bankoff

    “Jim Bankoff, chairman and chief executive officer of Vox Media, isn’t exactly a typical start-up ceo...[he] founded Vox Media, which includes a variety of sites that have distinct Web addresses, staffs and coverage areas, as well as a native advertising unit….This sets Vox apart from rivals...which have verticals through their portal sites.”

  •  

    Vox Media’s CEO, Jim Bankoff, recognized on notable industry lists: Business Insider’s Silicon Alley 100, Guardian’s 100 Most Powerful People in Media.

  •  

    Vox Media was an early launch partner for Apple News; Facebook Instant Articles, Notify, and Suggested Videos; Google AMP; and The List App.

Key Metrics

167MMmonthly UVs
265%Y/Y Video View Growth
Top 15 fastest-growing digital publishersvia comScore US

“A publishing house for the digital age”

This was The Verge’s biggest year ever: record-setting traffic, the launch of a new transportation section, and a major push into video with one of the most formidable teams in the industry. But beyond record traffic numbers, we did some wild things. We rode hoverboards and flew drones, shared exclusive interviews with Google’s Sundar Pichai and GM’s Mary Barra, and upped our longform game which, in one case, took a reporter on a week long tour in a coffin-shaped bus to meet the immortality-seeking U.S. presidential candidate. At The Verge we know that technology really is just pop culture now, and it’s our job to keep bringing audiences into the true experience of the weird, thrilling ride we call the future.

Highlights

  • February
    Vox Media ran its very first Super Bowl ad

    The 30-second spot from The Verge ran in Helena, Montana. (New York Times)

  • February
    Bill Gates was The Verge’s first guest editor

    Gates shared his vision for improving the lives of the poor with, what he called, “an amazing group that thinks about technology.”

  • February
    What’s Tech podcast launched—and became an iTunes best of 2015 podcast later this year

    The podcast explained new technology, while cutting through the jargon.

  • April
    New Transportation section launches, dedicated to covering all things that move

    With experts on cars, planes, trains, hyperloops, “it's not just going to be straight coverage of new technologies in vehicles.” (Adweek)

  • May
    In a major exclusive feature, Google’s Sundar Pichai explained his vision for the future

    Pichai was named Google’s CEO three months later.

  • September
    Walt Mossberg launched his first podcast, Ctrl-Walt-Delete, with editor-in-chief Nilay Patel

    Not only does it have the “podcast name of the year,” but here industry veteran Mossberg can discuss patterns he's seen across across the industry while leading the pack for two decades. (Adweek)

  • November
    The new Transportation section found a huge audience

    Launched just seven months before, the section “now drives as much as 30 percent of the site’s traffic.” (Digiday)

Key Metrics

28MMmonthly UVs
149%Y/Y Video View Growth
Top 5tech news propertyvia comScore US

2015 was Vox’s first full year in existence, and it was a blur. There’s the highlight reel, of course: we became the first digital-only news outlet to interview a sitting US president, we explained Syria in less than 5 minutes and more than 50 million people watched it, we built embeddable card stacks, we launched a new version of ourselves on Snapchat Discover, and so on. But most importantly, we proved, day after day, that there is a real audience for authoritative, high-quality explainer journalism across many, many platforms.

Highlights

  • February
    With Obama: The Vox Conversation, Vox.com became the first digital-only news site with such access to the President

    Co-founders Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias sat down with President Barack Obama for an hour-long video interview. “In the brief video clip posted on Vox’s Facebook page, Mr. Obama’s remarks are interspersed with infographics. By Sunday evening, the video had already been viewed more than 320,000 times.” (New York Times)

  • April
    Vox.com celebrated Voxiversary, commemorating its first full year

    In the first 12 months, Vox.com published more than 8,000 articles, almost 240 features, 115 card stacks, and over 130 videos.

  • May
    Cards stacks became embeddable and available to all

    Beginning with a partnership with the McClatchy Company, schools and other news outlets could finally benefit from the card stacks; “educators have directed their classes to read Vox.com's card stacks to bone up on class topics like the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the police shooting of Michael Brown.” (Ad Age)

  • October
    The Weeds podcast debuted as Vox.com’s first podcast

    Vox.com debuted The Weeds, a weekly podcast from Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Sarah Kliff. “The podcast’s name refers to the preference of its hosts to stay away from sensationalized and horserace political reporting and ruminate instead on the finer points of policy.” (Adweek)

  • November
    Marking the expansion of the video team, Matthew Vree joined as executive producer

    Vree came on board to grow the team across studios in New York, Washington, D.C., and the West Coast. (Variety)

  • November
    Vox.com launched on Snapchat Discover

    A truly mobile-first multimedia experience, Vox.com began to publish Snapchat editions every day at 6am that are uniquely focused on a single topic or theme.

Key Metrics

21MMmonthly UVs
546%Y/Y Video View Growth
Growing 11x Fasterthan the news/information category averagevia comScore US

2015 was full of Eater firsts: our first annual National 38 list, rounding up the best restaurants across the country; three James Beard awards, making us the first online-only publication to hit that milestone; the launch of our first podcast, the Eater Upsell; and our first major travel package (an obsessive look at the food of Walt Disney World). We also played with the interactive storytelling experience—and tested our Vox Media product team—by producing a multimedia day in the life of a restaurant along with viral videos like our insider's take on an omakase experience.

Highlights

  • January
    The first National Eater 38 list was published, announcing the best places to eat in the country

    Roving restaurant critic Bill Addison, who spends three weeks a month traveling across the country, released the ultimate list of where to eat in 2015.

  • May
    Eater won three James Beard awards, a first for a digital-only publication

    Wins came in the categories for Personal Essay, Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award, and MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.

  • May
    The Eater Upsell podcast debuted

    Hosted by Helen Rosner and Greg Morabito, Eater Upsell features conversations with the food world’s most interesting people.

  • May
    Eater Drinks section launched to de-mystify the world of drinks through explainers, maps, videos, and more

    Kat Odell led the charge to explore all beverages: beer, wine, sake, liquor, coffee, tea, juice...even bone broth.

  • October
    Chief critic Ryan Sutton exclusively reported industry-shifting news in a feature that showcased Chorus’s capabilities

    Eater announced that restaurateur Danny Meyer would eliminate tipping at all of his restaurants with an interactive feature; "Eater had the scoop...We're constantly seeking innovative ways to make our stories accessible to readers, and Eater has successfully done that." (NPR)

  • November
    The sixth annual Eater Awards were announced

    Eater recognized the hottest and best bars, restaurants, chefs, and industry players from across the country at the Award ceremony.

Key Metrics

11MMmonthly UVs
1678%Y/Y Video View Growth
Growing 4xfaster than the food publisher averagevia comScore US

This year SB Nation interviewed presidential candidates, broke news on Floyd Mayweather’s drug testing regimen, and covered sports stories from such exotic places as Dayton, Ohio and Yangon, Myanmar. We branched out into eSports and produced bold new web series like Jon Bois’ “Pretty Good,” while our longform earned two hits on Longreads’s best of longform 2015—the only national outlet to do so. Our audience grew 45% this year, now reaching more fans than ever across 300 of the highest quality grassroots team sites, five combat sports sites and through our national coverage.

Highlights

  • May
    “SportsPocalypse 2015” marked the biggest traffic day in Vox Media history

    SB Nation saw nearly 24MM pageviews in one day when simultaneously covering the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight, the NFL Draft, both NBA and NHL playoffs, the Kentucky Derby, and baseball matchups.

  • May
    The Pretty Good web series launched as a series of short documentaries

    Pretty Good offered a place to share those weird, funny and interesting stories.

  • July
    SB Nation created its first-ever award, The Piesman Trophy, to recognize a college lineman who did an awesome thing

    The first Piesman Trophy went to Southeastern Louisiana's Ashton Henderson at a December ceremony; celebrations included pie.

  • September
    SB Nation’s award-winning longform broke news

    Among its standout longform this year was a look at the drug test for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in Can Boxing Trust USADA?, an investigation that prompted a response from the United States Anti-Doping Agency itself.

  • October
    Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour hit its 300th episode the show

    Helwani celebrated, as usual, with the biggest names in mixed martial arts.

Key Metrics

83MMmonthly UVs
276%Y/Y Video View Growth
#1fastest-growing large sports propertyvia comScore US

Polygon celebrated the year with new podcasts, new video series, and our first full year of Cover Story longform—from an 18-part look inside Japan’s game industry to a deep dive into how Electronic Arts lost its soul. We expanded our entertainment and culture section with new hires to cover not only games but everything that this billion-dollar industry touches: what we used to call “nerd culture” is now just culture, having grown to dominate every corner of the entertainment industry. That means our Polygon audience enjoys more comics, more TV and movie reviews, and more entertainment news. To top it off, traffic has never been better.

Highlights

  • March
    Polygon’s first entertainment editor joined to launch the new entertainment section

    Susana Polo lent her expertise to broaden Polygon’s coverage of the entire industry; after all, “Batman isn’t just a game, it’s also movies and comic books.” (Adweek)

  • March
    The inaugural episode of the Minimap podcast aired; in December it was crowned an iTunes Best podcast of the year

    Minimap debuted to cover the biggest news in the world of video games.

  • May
    Polygon launched a new video series, Monster Factory

    Monster Factory breathed life into beautiful creatures using games with robust character creation tools.

  • September
    The Longform podcast introduces audiobook-like versions of its notable features

    With Longform, Polygon made it easier than ever to access the biggest features.

Key Metrics

11MMmonthly UVs
142%Y/Y Video View Growth
Top 10gaming info propertyvia comScore US

Racked’s year kicked off a with complete site redesign. We moved to Chorus, Vox Media’s proprietary media platform, which gave Racked the ability to publish authoritative shopping guides, breaking news, and personal essays alongside beautifully-displayed original photography and illustrations. With a new look, Racked continued to grow immensely this year, both in staff and through its content reach: it increased full-time staff by more than 50%, launched four new departments, and saw social media reach skyrocket with Pinterest visits up 257% and Facebook visits up by 173%. Longform stories took us around the country, stopping at one 700-mile stretch of yard sales through the middle of the country, and to photograph Paris Fashion Week. We published two massive seasonal shopping guides and hosted our first holiday market, which saw more than 2,500 shoppers at the Soho pop-up.

Highlights

  • February
    Racked began the year with a new look powered by Vox Media’s storytelling platform Chorus

    The redesign offered “a more upscale look and logo, not to mention slicker videos” that earned a finalist slot in min's Editorial & Design Awards for Website Redesign. (WWD)

  • February
    Racked’s first comedy web series, “Try Hards” launches

    The first scripted series was a collaboration with comedy duo SRSLY. (Variety)

  • June
    For the first time, Racked also partnered these handpicked designers with the trade show Capsule New York to showcase their work.

    For the first time, Racked also partnered these handpicked designers with the trade show Capsule New York to showcase their work.

  • December
    The first holiday pop-up market brought LA designers to New York City, and continued online as Racked’s first shoppable experience

    Soho shoppers enjoyed an oasis-inspired bazaar equipped with a photo booth and free gift-wrapping while the entire Racked audience could shop online; “shoppers choose size, color, quantity and then check out without leaving the Racked site.” (Digiday)

Key Metrics

5MMmonthly UVs
306%Y/Y Video View Growth
Top 5 fastest growing style propertyvia comScore US

Curbed got its first-ever editor-in-chief — Kelsey Keith — this year and with new energy made a number of big hires and launched new editorial series: Renovation Diary exploring progress from start to finish; Critical Eye with architecture critic Alexandra Lange; Property Lines weekly column with Alexei Barrionuevo; Homeward Bound, a first-person homebuilding narrative by Karrie Jacobs, plus its inaugural Groundbreakers awards program.

Highlights

  • February
    Kelsey Keith was named the very first editor-in-chief of Curbed

    Keith joined Curbed with the vision to “meld real estate, design and architecture into the site’s editorial experience.” (WWD)

  • April
    New growth strategy became broader and more nationally focused

    Curbed repositioned itself to feature “more original content, including home stories, long-form features and architecture criticism.” (Digiday)

  • October
    Veteran real estate reporter, Alexei Barrionuevo, joined Curbed and launched weekly column

    Barrionuevo kicked of Property Lines to investigate nationwide real estate trends.

  • October
    Curbed partnered with the National Trust for Historic Preservation for a month-long campaign, This Place Matters

    For four weeks the partners promoted the idea that preservation is an everyday issue. “The campaign invites people across the country to photograph and share on social media the places that are important to them.” (Adweek)

  • November
    The inaugural class of Groundbreakers honored dozens of architects

    Curbed recognized Groundbreakers cutting-edge work that changes the way the built world functions.

Key Metrics

6MMmonthly UVs
Top 10real estate propertyvia comScore US

Re/code joined the Vox Media family this May and spent the rest of 2015 continuing to break news both on and off stage. Re/code’s Code Conference drove the news agenda with hard-hitting interviews from Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg and members of the vanguard of tech including Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and GM’s Mary Barra. Offstage, we launched the Re/code Decode podcast with Kara Swisher; dedicated wall-to-wall coverage to the Ellen Pao trial to expose Silicon Valley’s problem with recruiting and promoting women and minorities; broke the news of Jack Dorsey’s return to lead Twitter; and shared a slew of scoops on EMC’s plot to sell itself, causing the movement of billions of dollars of stock market value. We wrap the second year of Re/code’s existence with plans for many more market-moving scoops, industry-leading Code conferences, and agenda-setting news and analysis.

Highlights

  • April
    Re/code’s hosted its first event in the new Code/Enterprise Series

    The standing room only, sold-out Code/Enterprise event offered insights and analysis to guide entrepreneurs toward the issues and players that matter most.

  • May
    Re/code joins Vox Media

    Announced on stage at Code conference, Re/code became the newest addition to the Vox Media family. “This is the next big step in our mission to bring you quality tech journalism, because our work will now be amplified and enhanced by Vox Media’s deep and broad skill set,” explained Re/code’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

  • May
    The second edition of the Code Conference featured Senator Elizabeth Warren, top executives from Google and Apple, and more

    Top influencers in media and technology gathered once again to discuss how digital technology impacts on our lives and our businesses, today and in the future.

  • June
    Executive Editor Kara Swisher launched Re/code Decode, which was quickly named a Forbes best podcast for entrepreneurs

    Hosted by one of tech’s most prominent journalists, Re/code Decode asks hard-hitting questions to guests such as former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, and actress Lena Dunham.

  • August
    The 26% video series launched to spotlight tech’s diversity crisis

    The five-part conversation questioned why only 26% of the industry is female. “‘The tech industry has a problem with women,’ according to Re/code, which launched a new video series.” (New York Times).

  • September
    Re/code broke major news, yet again, with a scoop on Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey

    Kara Swisher and Kurt Wagner’s scoop was picked up by dozens of outlets, including Vanity Fair and Fast Company.

Key Metrics

3MMmonthly UVs
Growing 6x more than business news category avg (since acquisition)via comScore US

In 2015 Vox Creative solidified its position as the leading force in native advertising, behind the most groundbreaking campaigns of the year. We delivered 300 percent YOY growth and doubled our team to meet that demand. Our expert storytellers for brands produced nearly 100 custom programs for clients in the auto, tech, food, entertainment, and thought leadership spaces.

We partnered with chefs and athletes. We took photos for Instagram and made vertical videos for Snapchat. We traveled down to Mexico City to trace the origin of the shredded beef taco and scaled mountains in Moab to capture an unconventional marriage proposal. We even opened a museum, inaugurated an online college for fantasy football with Odell Beckham Jr., and faked a pop-up restaurant in Times Square.

And we did it all with incredible advertising partners who were willing to be bold, take risks and create meaningful experiences for audiences to enjoy.

Highlights

  •  
    The Applebee’s Times Square Taste Test was recognized as a finalist for the Digiday Video Awards

    A handful of lucky participants were invited to the Taste Test to try dishes from New York’s new restaurant, La Pomme—or so they thought.

  •  
    Vox Creative helped to open the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) in a major campaign sponsored by Infiniti

    To open its first brick-and mortar space, Vox Creative collaborated with MOFAD to launch a 360-degree multi-sensory exhibit that featured a car installation. (The New York Times)

  •  
    Fantasy Online College launched as a sports comedy original partnership with the NFL, Above Average and Lenovo

    With “Dean” JB Smoove and “Professor” Odell Beckham Jr., “Lenovo takes note of that madness [of fantasy football] and pokes fun at fantasy culture as well as itself.” (Ad Age)

  •  
    Cadillac’s The Pursuit won the Native Creative Award for Best Sponsored Series

    Created in partnership with Cadillac and featured on The Verge, The Pursuit glimpses into the extraordinary lives of the creative entrepreneurs.

Vox Advertising

This year we launched 10 new ad products, including a real-time optimization technology, each designed to drive more impact and return for our advertisers. 2015 was also marked by the launch of Vox Media’s Chorus for Advertisers product, which allows marketers to leverage the same insights, data, workflow, and product technology used by our eight media brands.

But at Vox Media, we always love when the work—the creative content, our custom products, and ad offerings—speaks for itself…

Key Metrics

80%Viewability:
High Impact
48%Interaction Rate:
High Impact
4XIncreased click through rate

The Vox Product team of designers, engineers, product managers, and support staff continued to do what it does best: breathe digital life into Vox Media’s eight brands by making beautiful, thoughtful, effective designs—and keeping them running quickly and smoothly. In 2015 we also focused significant efforts on a number of projects that impact every Vox Media user. We sped up our websites, slashing page load times nearly in half. We strengthened our platform Chorus, improving user experience and enabling easier programming of partner platforms. We launched Chorus for Advertisers, allowing brands to leverage the same insights, data, workflow, and product technology that we use at Vox Media. And through writing, speaking, and events we shared and learned with development, design, and media communities.

Highlights

  •  
    Relaunched Racked

    We rebranded and redesigned Racked from the ground up to take advantage of Chorus

  •  
    Acquired OpBandit

    The data science startup joined us to integrate their technology into Chorus for most of our brands. (Financial Times)

  •  
    Performance improvements

    In 2015 we reduced our most important performance metrics by 50% on average, with further gains to come in 2016.

  •  
    Launched Chorus for Advertisers

    We opened our proprietary media platform and storytelling technology to our brand marketing partners.

  •  
    Published 74 branded campaigns

    Chorus for Advertisers helped enable the talented Vox Creative team to scale campaign creation dramatically.

  •  
    A 500% increase in custom advertising campaigns

    In 2015, the Hymnal platform was used to build 6,164 custom beautiful ad experiences on behalf of 293 world class brands.

  •  
    Melissa Bell honored

    Our VP of Growth and Analytics was named one of the Most Powerful Women in DC.

  •  
    Elite Truong leads

    Elite, Product Manager for Partner Platforms, was selected for the inaugural ONA-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women.

  •  
    Society of News Design Awards

    We won 6 Awards for Excellence across several categories in SND’s annual Best of Digital News Design competition.

  •  
    Special Events

    Vox Product hosted three events this year, including our design battle Pixel Punch.

  •  
    Acknowledgements

    Senior Front-End Engineer Ally Palanzi and Senior Front-End Designer Alisha Ramos both named 2015 DC Powerful Women Programmers.

  •  
    More Hacking

    We organized The Verge and Eater hack weeks and a MiniVAX in addition to our annual VAX product team hack week.

  •  
    Hosted OpenNews fellow

    Kavya Sukumar joined us this year as a Knight-Mozilla OpenNews fellow, and we’ve been selected to host another fellow in 2016!

  •  
    Published Code-of-conduct

    Through the initiatives of our diversity committee we’ve released and open sourced the first version of our Vox Product Code-of-conduct.

Key Metrics

31,102Github commits
12Open Sourced Projects
42 New Team Members

Credits

Design / Development Josh Laincz Illustrations Justin Mezzell Special Thanks Ted Irvine
Producer Andrea Rogoff Producer Jonathan Hunt Special Thanks Tate Tozer