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The Dodo Launches Its First Children’s Toy with “Dodo Loveables,” a Line of Collectible Plush Characters
Available at Walmart this winter and Target next spring, and produced in partnership with Bonkers Toy Co., the collection will feature six original characters inspired by The Dodo’s popular “Little But Fierce” series

The Dodo Launches New Series of Books with “A Kids Co.”
Out today, the three-book series is geared toward teaching kids all about becoming a pet parent

The Pitch Joins the Vox Media Podcast Network in Strategic Partnership
The long-running podcast featuring real entrepreneurs pitching real investors joins a robust slate of business shows at Vox Media that includes Pivot, Decoder, Land of the Giants, The Prof G Pod, On with Kara Swisher and more.

Vox Media Supports the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA)
This important bipartisan legislation is critical to protecting and supporting quality journalism during a time defined by misinformation.

Thrillist Audience Pursuing Reconnection: Immersive, Inclusive Travel is Cleared for Takeoff
Over the past three years, our lives have seen a lot of disruption. For many, the pandemic has created new routines, and with that, the freedom to try new things. These sentiments will carry into 2023; according to most consumers, now is the time to take the leap and book those long-delayed travel plans. Though many describe their years living through the pandemic as negative, it’s apparent that they have a positive outlook on the future — seeing opportunity, joy, and reconnection ahead. SEIZING THE DAY BY PLANNING TRAVEL – AND MILLENNIALS ARE IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT As our country emerges from the pandemic, travel planning is picking up. Travel plans are highest for in-state travel, followed by domestic overnight trips, and international travel. Generationally, Millennials are most likely to be planning travel, with nearly 1 in 3 planning international travel, and half planning to travel domestically (to another state). In comparison, Gen Z is least likely to be planning travel in the next 12 months: 1 in 5 intend to travel internationally, and 1 in 3 domestically (to another state). TRAVELERS ARE SEEKING DESTINATIONS NEW AND OLD There will be a fair amount of “repeat” travel this year (to places they know, but likely haven’t gotten to visit in a while). Consumers are eager to recapture the positive memories associated with their pre-Covid travel. That said, half of those planning trips are exiting the isolation of the Covid years and venturing out someplace new. INCLUSIVE TRAVEL AS A MEANS OF RECONNECTION AND REAWAKENING While budget will always be a main driver, travel consumers are now looking for a number of things while planning a trip. A major factor is inclusion; people want to visit places that feel inclusive and welcoming, which is nearly as important as the amount they

New York Magazine’s Investigative Podcast Series, Cover Story, Returns for Second Season
Cover Story: Seed Money premieres today and features the story of a Montana billionaire and the spy who accused him of running a sex trafficking network.

Advertising Week 2022: Vox Media’s Chief Revenue Officer on the Three Pillars that Make a Modern Media Partner
In conversation with Axios’ Media Deals Reporter Kerry Flynn, Pauley shares how the modern media company is differentiating itself

NowThis Announces Presidential Forum With Joe Biden
Biden in Conversation With Six Change-Makers on Issues Animating Young People Ahead of the Midterms

Vox Creative’s Explainer Studio Celebrates its Five-Year Anniversary, Expands Into Shorter, Social-First Formats
The team is also celebrating creating its 200th Explainer video for brands

Vox Conversations Relaunches as The Gray Area, Hosted by Sean Illing
Every Monday and Thursday, Illing and his guests will dive deep into a wide array of topics and provide a philosophical take on culture, politics, and everything in between.

New Research from Tubular Labs Reveals Vox Media’s Scale and Influence in Video
On average, U.S. adults spend nearly six hours per day watching video, but by 2024, digital video will account for more than 50% of total video viewing for the first time. Time spent with social video is up +10% year over year (eMarketer, April 2022). But what’s going to make audiences want to press play — and keep coming back for more? Social video does a lot more than just entertain. Video content like Vox Media’s — from Vox’s informative and inspiring Explained series to heartwarming pet stories from The Dodo, and so much more in between — provide quality, scale, and engagement. We offer the same authentic connections as beloved influencers but in a more trusted, brand-safe environment. It’s for these reasons that social video checks all the boxes for both audiences and brands — right now, and as we move into the future. As the media world continues to fragment, it is critical for marketers to understand what qualities make an effective video partner to maximize ROI. Leveraging social video data from Tubular Labs, we’ve created a guide for marketers to identify the optimal social video partner — one that can successfully move viewers down the purchase funnel. START WITH SCALE: In the social video world, there are an endless number of properties and creators, but only a select few connect with a sizable audience. Meaningful reach ensures a robust audience is learning about your brand and can effectively grow brand awareness. TARGET YOUNG, INFLUENTIAL AUDIENCES: The right digital video partner can draw out hard-to-reach Gen Z audiences who hold and influence large spending power. Gen Z watches significantly less traditional TV compared to older generations, spending the least amount of their day with TV. (eMarketer, April 2022) By the end of 2024, the number of Gen Z

Vox Media Studios’ Next Culinary Challenge ‘Chefs vs. Wild’ Premieres Today on Hulu
Vox Media Studios is celebrating its latest Hulu premiere, Chefs vs. Wild. Hosted by renowned chef and adventurer Kiran Jethwa, each episode has two different world class chefs who will be dropped into the wilderness where they’ll embark on a grueling and unprecedented mission – survive and forage enough wild ingredients to create a restaurant worthy, five-star meal. Episodes will culminate in the chefs going head-to-head in a “wilderness kitchen,” using their foraged ingredients and ingenuity to create savory dishes and, ultimately, impress the judges. Jethwa will also serve as judge, alongside wild foods expert Valerie Segrest. Chefs vs. Wild is produced by Vox Media Studios, Majordomo Media, Leftfield Pictures. It’s executive produced by Shawn Witt, Gretchen Palek and Jordana Hochman for Leftfield Pictures, Chad Mumm and Mark W. Olsen for Vox Media Studios, and David Chang, Dave O’Connor, Chris Ying and Christopher C. Chen for Majordomo Media. Stephen Rankin serves as showrunner and executive producer. Chefs vs. Wild marks the second culinary premiere this month for Vox Media Studios and Hulu. Best in Dough, a pizza competition series hosted by Wells Adams, premiered Monday, September 19. Both series will premiere new episodes every Monday. About Vox Media Studios Vox Media Studios is a modern studio producing premium unscripted, documentary, and scripted programming for television, film, OTT, podcasts, and brand partners for today’s global audience. As an Emmy and Academy Award winning full-service production studio, it works both independently and in partnership with Vox Media’s category-leading networks—including New York Magazine, The Verge, Eater, Vox, NowThis, and The Dodo—to extend the company’s storytelling capabilities to the most relevant platforms including HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, YouTube Originals, and Freeform. Vox Media Studios is also home to the award-winning Vox Media Podcast Network and Epic, the Academy-Award winning powerhouse producing

Holiday 2022: Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
2022 has marked another unprecedented year of challenges – just as we were getting comfortable with Covid-19, we saw a resurgence of new variants alongside an unstable economy, political unrest, global tensions and concerning social issues. But even against this complicated backdrop, consumers will not be held back this holiday season. Regardless of Covid concerns, consumers will do everything they can to spend time with loved ones. Amidst inflation, gift-giving will carry on as people build budgets and find deals to ensure they can find the perfect gifts. And in addition to choosing the perfect gifts, consumers will be selective about the brands they buy. While the holidays typically place a spotlight on being selfless, after a rough couple of years, consumers will put their wants and needs first and do whatever they can to maximize their own personal joy this holiday season. To dig deeper into consumers’ outlooks, attitudes, and behaviors this holiday season, Vox Media partnered with Woo Brand Research on a survey of 2,000 general consumers. As excitement builds and plans are made, now is the time for brands to build meaningful relationships with consumers as they prepare for their holiday celebrations and build out their gift wish lists. HUMAN CONNECTION IS PRIORITY #1 Consumers are looking forward to large, in-person holiday gatherings once again. 79% of those surveyed say their main priority is being able to spend quality time with loved ones given everything that has happened. If they had to choose, half say they would rather spend their money on whatever is needed to ensure they can celebrate in-person with family and friends, emphasizing the importance of being with loved ones. As gatherings will be more pronounced, we anticipate higher spending on food and drink. Holiday hosts will opt to do all the cooking themselves

Vox Media Studios Celebrates Latest Hulu Culinary Premiere with Best in Dough
The Pizza Obsessed Competition Premieres with 3 Episodes and is Hosted by Wells Adams

POPSUGAR Fitness Debuts New Season of Dance Fitsugar
The Class Fitsugar spin-off brings a fresh aesthetic and new cast of top dancers, choreographers, and trainers

The Verge Launches an Ambitious New Site
The Verge’s new site will help the decade-old technology news brand build for the next 10 years by investing in a direct relationship with its audience.

Vox Media Wraps Kara Swisher’s Annual Code Conference, Featuring Interviews with Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, Bob Iger, Sundar Pichai, Jen Psaki, Issa Rae, and More
The Three-Day Beverly Hills Conference Focused on Tech Regulation, the Global Economy, The Future of Work, the Climate Crisis, and more

Kara Swisher Announces New Interview Podcast in Partnership with Vox Media and New York Magazine, On with Kara Swisher
The twice weekly show will feature agenda-setting conversations, led by one of the most iconic journalists of our time.

The Dodo Announces First Ever Expansive Retail Collaboration
The Dodo will expand its retail footprint with its first-ever pet product collection, a Pet Lovers box, and pet insurance offering, all available exclusively at Walmart this fall.

Intro to the Metaverse: How Consumers Connect to the Virtual World
It’s the word — and the world — on all our minds: the Metaverse. What is it, what does it look like, and how do we get there? To help both brands and consumers better understand their relationship to the Metaverse, Vox Media collaborated with UTA, a leading global talent, entertainment, sports, and brand representation company, on a survey of 5,000 Americans aged 13-50. Our biggest takeaway? Despite claiming to know little about this rapidly evolving virtual world, most consumers are already part of it. Up until recently, conversations about the Metaverse have been focused mainly on its technological building blocks, like NFTs and Web3 — topics that many Americans still find confusing. Our research found that almost half (48%) of consumers claim they don’t know anything about the Metaverse, while just 25% say they are very or fairly familiar. In reality, most consumers have at least some awareness of the Metaverse — even if they don’t realize it. From gaming to immersive virtual worlds, 2/3 of Americans between the ages of 13 and 56 have spent time on at least one Metaverse platform, with that number rising to 9 out of 10 Gen Z. The fact is that Americans of all ages are already building and experiencing new worlds at a staggering rate. Through the Metaverse, we’re cultivating new friendships, discovering new passions, and forming connections that go far beyond just the virtual space. To learn more about how the Metaverse is impacting our daily lives, see our presentation “Dissecting the Metaverse.” Download the report here: UTA x Vox_Media Metaverse

Vox Media Studios’ Brand New Documentary Series “Keep This Between Us” Premieres Today on Freeform
All Four Episodes to Air Today and Tomorrow as Part of Two-Night Event

Vox Media Celebrates Theatrical Release of Epic’s “Breaking” Starring John Boyega
Breaking, the first theatrical release from Vox Media Studios, is now in theaters. Starring John Boyega and produced by Vox Media Studios’ Epic Magazine, Breaking tells the true story of Marine veteran Brian Brown-Easley (Boyega) who takes a bank and several of its employees hostage after being denied support from Veterans Affairs. In addition to Boyega, Breaking stars Michael K. Williams in his final role, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, and Olivia Washington. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Bleecker Street acquired the domestic rights at Sundance and Universal Pictures is handling international distribution. Breaking was adapted from Aaron Gell’s article, “They Didn’t Have To Kill Him” and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin. The screenplay was written by Corbin & Kwame Kwei-Armah and produced by Salman Al-Rashid and Sam Frohman of Salmira Productions, Mackenzie Fargo from Epic, and Ashley Levinson and Kevin Turen from Little Lamb. Epic’s Joshuah Bearman, Joshua Davis, and Arthur Spector Executive Produced along with Boyega and Katia Washington. About Epic Epic Magazine is a production and media company founded by investigative journalists Joshuah Bearman and Joshua Davis. Part of Vox Media Studios, Epic is known for its nonfiction storytelling expertise, as well as creating and adapting extraordinary true stories for film and television. More than 50 articles by Bearman, Davis, and Epic writers have been optioned for the screen, including the article that served as the basis for the movie ARGO, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Season Two of Epic’s television show LITTLE AMERICA will be available to stream on AppleTV+. LITTLE AMERICA has been nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards, BAFTA Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and GLAAD Media Awards. BIG CIGAR, our six-part

Latest Episode of “Into The Mix” Podcast from Ben & Jerry’s and Vox Creative Features Brand’s Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Hear how Cohen and Greenfield have pushed the boundaries of their ice cream company and its fans to champion social change

POPSUGAR Creates New “Condition Center” Hub With Approachable, Accurate Information on Women’s Health
With diverse, inclusive content on both physical and mental health, the new section will speak to 20-somethings about common conditions that impact women