Vox Media to buy Re/code, bulking up its portfolio of sites
“This combination will give us access to the new tools and talent we need and want to make Re/code stronger and better,” Swisher said in a statement.
Re/code was founded in 2007 as All Things Digital (or AllThingsD as it was known), which was first a tech conference and part of The Wall Street Journal. In 2013, the site and conference split from the Journal and went on to create Re/code, with backing from NBC Universal Group. Re/code continues to host live events, which generate much of the company’s revenue.
The 44 full-time employees at Re/code are expected to join Vox, according toThe New York Times.
Re/code offers Vox a highly respected tech news site that adds diversity to a publishing portfolio that includes sports blog network SB Nation, news-explainer Vox.com and food site Eater. And Vox gives Recode publishing tools that can improve the look-and-feel of the bloggy site’s stories and an ad sales organisation to sell brands on those stories at a premium.
Vox already has a tech news site called The Verge, but it has sought to grow into more of a culture site oriented around technology — like a People magazine for people who grew up on the internet. Acquiring Re/code would seem to give The Verge more leeway to continue that expansion while Re/code handles the hard news side of tech.
“Bringing Re/code into the Vox Media fold means that The Verge can remain focused on being the best mainstream technology and lifestyle site in the world, and Re/code can dig even deeper into how the money and business of technology works,” The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel wrote on Tuesday. “Re/code will maintain its site and branding, but over time we’ll work hard to find as many ways to work together as possible.”
