Vox Media Announces Video and Audio Programming, First-Party Data Solutions, and a Social Studio at ‘Vox Media Now’ Event

Today, Vox Media hosted Vox Media Now, the company’s upfront event that featured an exclusive look at what’s happening now — including company strategy, major announcements, and enlightening conversations — and a preview of what’s next as the company further expands its work and partnerships. As the modern media company and a home for the industry’s leading voices, Vox Media continues to inform, engage, inspire, and entertain people, growing in scale to connect with audiences wherever they devote their attention while never compromising quality.

Led by Vox Media CEO, chair, and co-founder Jim Bankoff and CRO Ryan Pauley, the event presented updates from the company following the acquisition of Group Nine in February 2022.

Vox Media Now was held at Fotografiska New York on Thursday, June 9, for an intimate audience of brand partners who were welcomed with Vox Media merchandise and a menu featuring specialty cocktails crafted by Punch. The event included conversations with numerous leaders and voices from across Vox Media, including: Kara Swisher, co-host of Pivot; Ray Chao, GM of Vox Media Podcast Network; Sam Sanders, host of an upcoming Vulture podcast; Renee Appelle, SVP, global partnerships & strategy; Yosef Johnson, head of Vox Creative; YuJung Kim, group publisher of The Dodo and SB Nation; Lindsay Peoples, editor-in-chief of the Cut; Joanna Nikas, deputy style editor at the Cut; and Jen Ortiz, deputy editor at the Cut.

Highlights from Vox Media Now

Video Slate of 125+ Franchises

Vox Media announced an expanded slate of video franchises that now totals more than 125 new and returning series. Diverse in topic — from dining and news, to fitness and animals — these editorial series will publish regularly and will be available across platforms. The upcoming video slate features brand new series like The Dodo’s Running Back to the Rescue; Prism, a new docu-style sports series from SB Nation’s Secret Base; expanded FitSugar videos from PopSugar; and the Cut’s How I Get It Done series, which will debut in video this year. Other fan-favorite shows return, like Vox’s Earworm and Missing Chapter, The Verge’s Full Frame with Becca, NowThis’s Common Cents, and Polygon’s weekly community livestreams on Twitch.

• The Dodo: This summer, the #1 most-viewed and most-engaged-with animal brand globally will debut Running Back to the Rescue, the brand’s very first series made just for TikTok and Instagram Reels. Starring professional football player and passionate dog rescuer Brady Oliveira, Running Back to the Rescue joins a slate of popular Dodo franchises like the weekly series Foster Diaries and Soulmates.

• Vox: The Emmy award-winning video creators continue to approach music, design, health, and policy with the signature explainer style audiences love. Returning favorites include Missing Chapter, with over 38 million views on YouTube, and Earworm, the beloved show about the sounds behind favorite songs, that racked up 5.6 million hours of watchtime. Vox will also debut New Translation with Joss Fong, exploring how deeply gender is built into language, and What on Earth, about never-before-seen secrets around the world.
• Eater: From the most trusted voice in food and dining, Eater announces the launch of a new hero franchise encompassing award-winning restaurant series: Eater Inside. Through video, editorial, and social storytelling, Eater Inside offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a restaurant today — from sourcing ingredients to innovative culinary techniques. Coming this fall to YouTube, OTT, and beyond, Eater Inside joins a slate of popular Eater shows like Plateworthy, hosted by chef Nyesha Arrington, and Dan Does, hosted by Daniel Geneen.

• NowThis: The #1 most-followed news creator on TikTok doubles down on covering the issues that young people care about most. Now, the brand renews social-first favorites including Common Good, hosted by Alejandro Alba and Luria Freeman, which focuses on moments of positivity and inspiration, and It’s My Business, which shares small business owners’ journeys of turning their entrepreneurial dreams into reality. Continuing to lean into sustainability, the new NowThis series UpcycleThis looks at the impact of difficult-to-recycle products on our ecosystem and the creative solutions changemakers use to upcycle them.
• SB Nation: The award-winning Secret Base franchise again and again reinvents sports documentaries for digital audiences. Known for acclaimed series like the Dorktown docs and fan-favorites like Beef History, Secret Base will now debut Prism, a new series that inspects what’s missing from the public perceptions of athletes and iconic sports personalities.
• Popsugar: Popsugar’s upcoming wellness vertical expands the brand’s longtime dedication to all aspects of health. This summer, Popsugar will introduce a whole new season of Class FitSugar — the #1 most viewed fitness franchise on social — and its Dance FitSugar spin-off. Audiences will see a new set design, brand new cast of trainers including Jasmin Blocker and Rachel McClusky, returning trainers including Raneir Poland and Charlee Atkins, and an expanded workout range across sculpt, strength, Pilates, HIIT, and dance.

• The Verge: Committed to future-focused and gadget-obsessed video that helps viewers decide which new tech to buy, The Verge renews the much-loved series Full Frame with Becca, dedicated to all things camera gear, with host Becca Farsace. For The Verge’s main YouTube programming, audiences can expect more iconic product reviews and authentic takes on the latest gadgets. The Verge also plans to expand more deeply in science this year as it launches a new home on The Verge for Seeker.
• Polygon: The brand’s talent and creativity are focused on Twitch, hosting Polygon’s weekly community livestreams where the audience tunes in to engage with video talent and celebrate a new game or retro classic. On Twitch, Polygon will host its second-annual Polygonathon, a 24-hour livestream to raise money for Trans Lifeline.

• The Cut: This year, the Cut is leaning into its successful franchise How I Get It Done by expanding it beyond the weekly column and in-person event to a video series. The popular interview series with successful women has asked leaders like Margaret Atwood, Christy Turlington, Ava DuVernay, and Issa Rae about managing their careers, and their lives.
• Thrillist: Exploring local culture near and far, the new franchise Ride With Me features Thrillist editors riding along with a variety of celebrities, influencers, and local personalities as they show audiences their favorite neighborhood spots. Upcoming guests include Trixie Mattel, Bear Grylls, and more.
• Vulture: Vulture has adapted its long-running franchise Role Call, in which Vulture talks to actors about performances they’ve probably forgotten by now (but we definitely haven’t), into a new video series.

The Vox Channel

Last fall, Vox Media debuted the Vox Channel on the Roku Channel, bringing its portfolio of networks and franchises from Vox, The Verge, Eater, and SB Nation Secret Base, to a leading streamer. On stage, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff announced the Vox Channel will also be live across YouTube, and additional streaming platforms, with opportunities for ad partners to buy linear inventory directly from Vox Media.

Vox Media Studios

As Vox Media’s video franchises continue to grow across social, OTT, and linear, so does the company’s robust Vox Media Studios business. The Emmy award-winning studio is a partner to the industry’s biggest creatives, filmmakers, and talent.

• Hulu ordered four new food-focused series from Vox Media Studios and Majordomo Media. New series include Drag Me to Dinner, Secret Chef, Burning Men, and Chefs vs. Wild.
• Later this year, John Boyega will star in Epic’s theatrical film Breaking, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January.

• HBO will premiere the six-part documentary series Mind Over Murder from Nanfu Wang on June 20.
• Netflix will debut The Verge’s first long-form streaming series The Future Of on June 21.

In addition to the above projects, Vox Media Studios is in production on nearly 20 premium series and films with Hulu, AppleTV+, Amazon, and more.

Fall 2022 Podcast Slate Featuring a New Podcast from Kara Swisher

Vox Media is coming off a year of high growth for its audio business, following acquisitions and partnerships with a focus on creators. In the last year, Vox Media Podcast Network doubled its monthly downloads across the network.

Vox Media announced the expansion of its partnership with journalist Kara Swisher, who will launch a new interview show for New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network, a sibling to Pivot, the award-winning podcast Swisher co-hosts with NYU Stern Marketing professor Scott Galloway. In this new show, Kara Swisher will help listeners make sense of the moment through spirited, agenda-setting conversations with leaders in business and tech, as well as other industries.

The fall slate of podcasts includes:

• A new interview podcast from Kara Swisher, which will feature agenda setting conversations, led by one of the most iconic journalists of our time.
• A new culture podcast from Sam Sanders, who joined Vulture earlier this spring.
• A new explainer show from Vox, bringing the brand’s service-oriented mission to life by answering the burning questions of public figures and regular people alike.
• Two new seasons of Land of the Giants – the first season focused on Facebook, the second season on dating apps.
• A new season of Cafe Studios’ true crime show Up Against the Mob, about the mysterious murder of a high-profile mob boss.
• A new season of New York Magazine’s Cover Story podcast, investigating the rise and fall of a Silicon Valley billionaire. It’s a story with a satisfying ending, just not the one we expected.
• Increasing the frequency of shows, including Criminal, This Is Love, The Verge’s Decoder, and The Vergecast, to meet audience demand.

Lindsay Peoples Announces The Cut Shopping Section

Today, Lindsay Peoples, editor-in-chief of the Cut, announced The Cut Shop, a new digital boutique launching this July that will span fashion, beauty, wellness, and home products. Thoughtfully curated, The Cut Shop relies on the brand’s editors, writers, and taste making guest experts to share stories of products that inspire women to move forward in the world with confidence and style.

New and Updated Solutions to Help Partners Reach Audiences

Vox Media continues to create and update solutions that help brands reach and connect with audiences more effectively while maximizing performance across social platforms. Vox Media’s award-winning and industry-leading brand storytelling studio, Vox Creative, introduced the Vox Creative Social Club, a team of social-first specialists who can work with brands to help them navigate new and emerging social channels, understand what content works best where, and adapt to changes and trends on each platform.

Forte, Vox Media’s first-party data platform, also received updates following the acquisition of Group Nine. Forte’s data models now include highly-engaged social audiences from former Group Nine brands, giving additional scale to the audience behavior and insights that brands can utilize to drive outcomes. The update also includes the roll out of purchase intent segments, giving advertisers more intentional ways of targeting audiences when they are in a purchasing mindset, across Vox Media’s editorial networks.

During the week leading up to Vox Media Now, additional product launches and expansions were announced, including:

• Reintroducing performance marketing solution: Vox Media announced VM Connect, a rebrand and expansion of Group Nine’s performance-marketing solution. VM Connect is a performance-driven scalable and efficient social solution for brands, allowing them to deploy direct-response campaigns across social platforms.
• Making it easier for brands to invest in the open web: Vox Media announced the Concert SSP, a publisher-led supply side platform, which allows Concert to deliver more scale, performance, and sustainable addressability for brands looking to advertise across premium publishers. To make this innovation even more meaningful to our partners, we are also bringing on another leader in the industry, a company with a shared vision of improving the open internet: The Trade Desk, who at launch will be the exclusive demand-side platform partner.

To partner with Vox Media or learn more about the video franchises announced today, reach out to advertising@voxmedia.com. And to stay up to date on all Vox Media company news, subscribe to Vox Media’s weekly newsletter here!