Background in sports media Tyler Bleszinski, a
freelance writer, established
Athletics Nation in 2003 as a sports
blog that sought to cover the baseball team
Oakland Athletics from a fan's perspective. The blog quickly became popular, becoming the second-most popular site on the Blogads network, after
Daily Kos. Bleszinski, together with Daily Kos creator
Markos Moulitsas and political strategist
Jerome Armstrong, then established the sports blog network
SB Nation around
Athletics Nation in 2005. The popularity of the site led to other sports blogs being incorporated.
SB Nation hired former
AOL executive
Jim Bankoff as an advisor in 2008 to assist in its growth. He was promoted to
chief executive officer (CEO) in January 2009. He showed interest in
SB Nations goal of building a network of niche-oriented sports websites. By February 2009, the
SB Nation network contained 185 blogs, and in November 2010,
Comscore estimated that the site had attracted 5.8 million unique visitors.
Continued growth and expansion into other content areas In 2011, Bankoff hired a number of former writers from AOL's technology blog
Engadget, including former editor-in-chief
Joshua Topolsky, to build a new technology-oriented website in the same network as
SB Nation. Alongside this launch, Bankoff and Trei Brundrett created Vox Media as the
parent company for both
SB Nation and
The Verge. The previous parent
shell to
SB Nation, SportsBlogs, Inc., was converted into Vox Media, Inc. for this purpose. Brundrett, who had been with
SB Nation since 2006, became Vox Media's
vice president of products and technology, and later
chief product officer. In 2012, Vox Media launched a video gaming website,
Polygon, led by former
Joystiq editor Christopher Grant. In November 2013, Vox Media acquired Curbed Network, which consisted of the
real-estate blog network
Curbed, the food blog
Eater, and the fashion blog
Racked. In April 2014, the company launched a news website,
Vox. Led by former
Washington Post columnist
Ezra Klein,
Melissa Bell and
Matthew Yglesias,
Vox was positioned as a general interest news service with a focus on providing additional context to recurring subjects within its articles. In May 2015, Vox Media acquired
Recode, a technology industry news website that was founded by
Walt Mossberg and
Kara Swisher, the former editors of
The Wall Street Journals
All Things Digital. In February 2017, Vox Media promoted Brundrett as its
chief operating officer. In May 2017, Vox Media announced that it had entered into an agreement to provide technology and advertising sales for
Bill Simmons' sports website
The Ringer, as part of a revenue sharing agreement. In February 2018, it was reported that Vox Media would be laying off around 50 employees, particularly surrounding video production. CEO Jim Bankoff stated previously that the company planned to exit
native video for
Facebook due to "unreliable monetization and promotion". The memo announcing the layoffs argued that despite its success, native video "won't be viable audience or revenue growth drivers for us relative to other investments we are making", and that the company wanted to focus more on podcasting and Vox Entertainment. The layoffs represented around 5% of Vox's workforce. In April 2019, Vox Media acquired
Epic magazine, which would become part of a new division called Vox Media Studios, which had also absorbed Vox Entertainment and the Vox Media Podcast Network. In September 2019, Vox Media agreed to acquire and merge with New York Media, the parent company of
New York magazine. The
California Assembly Bill 5 was passed in September 2019, and the bill aimed at improving the working conditions for contract workers. In response to this bill, Vox Media announced in December 2019 that it would terminate more than 200 contracts of California-based freelance writers for
SB Nation, and replace these writers with 20 full-time staff writers. On April 17, 2020, Vox Media announced it would furlough 9% of its workforce from May 1 to July 31, 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021,
Lindsay Peoples Wagner was hired to be the new editor-in-chief of
The Cut. At the same time, Vox Media also banned
fossil fuel advertising to tackle
climate change. In February 2021,
Swati Sharma—former managing editor of
The Atlantic—was hired to be the new editor-in-chief of
Vox. Vox Media purchased Cafe Studios, the publisher of
Preet Bharara's podcast
Stay Tuned with Preet, in April 2021, making it part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. In August 2021, Vox Media announced its purchase of
Punch, a
mixology website established by
Bertelsmann-owned
Random House, to undisclosed terms.
Punch is to assist the expansion of Vox Media's
Eater website. On December 13, 2021, it was announced that Vox Media would acquire
Group Nine Media. The acquisition was completed on February 22, 2022. Investors in Group Nine, including
Warner Bros. Discovery, now own 25 percent of Vox. In February 2023,
Penske Media Corporation became the largest shareholder in Vox Media, acquiring a 20% stake in the company, and Jay Penske joined Vox's board. In April 2023, it was announced that
NowThis would be spun off as a separate company from Vox Media. The deal was backed by Accelerate Change. In May 2025, Vox Media sold
Polygon to
Valnet, while also laying off most of their staff including Editor-in-Chief Christopher Plante.
Aftermath reported they were informed by a "former employee" that "at least 25 people have been let go" and noted many of the laid off staff "were
union members". The Vox Media Union was negotiating a new contract with Vox Media at the time, and the
Writers Guild of America East (who represents the union) condemned the sale as
union busting. Group Publisher for
Polygon &
The Verge Chris Grant shared his frustrations on
Bluesky, stating that Valnet had refused to meet with him or answer questions during the process. == Corporate affairs ==