Vox Media Expands CRO Remit to Include Subscriptions

Vox Media announced Friday morning that it is expanding the role of its chief revenue officer Ryan Pauley to reflect the new business capabilities of the publisher following its merger with Group Nine Media. Pauley will continue to oversee the advertising business of Vox Media, including its audio, video, programmatic and branded content arms. Now he will also lead consumer revenue, commerce and affiliate revenue. The additional responsibilities reflect a growing trend across the media industry to intertwine advertising and consumer revenue departments, as strategic changes to one typically affect the other. “Historically, advertising and subscriptions have had separate leaders because they require different kinds of planning,” Pauley said. “But there is a lot more interplay between them now, so when it comes to making trade-offs between the two, having them under a single leader creates a single point of accountability.” Signaling Its Ambitions, Vox Media Hires Former BuzzFeed Licensing Guru Eric Karp Vox Media announced it had reached an agreement to merge with Group Nine Media in December, and the deal officially closed in late February, bringing properties like NowThis News, PopSugar, The Dodo and Thrillist under the Vox Media banner. The expanded portfolio strengthens the capabilities of Vox Media in key areas, specifically by boosting its social footprint, aging down its overall demographic and expanding its presence in categories like lifestyle, pets, politics, food and travel, Pauley told Adweek. By giving Pauley oversight over both advertising and consumer revenue, Vox Media hopes to streamline its incorporation of Group Nine Media and grow the newly combined business as efficiently as possible. Prior to the expansion, Vox Media president Pam Wasserstein oversaw subscriptions, commerce and editorial at New York Magazine. She will now be responsible for all editorial and content creation at the combined company, including its studios and podcasting business. Geoff Schiller, the chief revenue officer at Group Nine Media, will be leaving the company, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Incorporating Group Nine Media into Vox Media Despite his new responsibilities, Pauley said his first priority is folding in the advertising business of Group Nine Media. By the end of March, Vox Media aims to merge all first-party data onto Forte, as well as integrate Concert, its advertising marketplace, across the new titles. After that, Vox Media will begin the behind-the-scenes integrations, such as merging Group Nine Media sales data into a shared CRM and aligning the ad server and order management systems, Pauley said. “Once we have finished the integration, we will have all of Group Nine’s contextual and behavioral data, which tells us what content their audiences are interacting with,” Pauley said. “Then brands will be able to access single audience segments across the entire portfolio.” As the new head of reader revenue, Pauley will manage Vox contributions and subscriptions to New York Magazine, Cafe Insider and Hot Pod. Group Nine Media has no reader revenue at the moment, so the primary area of focus for Pauley will be New York Magazine. He declined to share specifics about its subscription efforts. Pauley also hopes to take the commerce expertise of Vox Media and apply it to several Group Nine Media properties, specifically PopSugar. Vox Media honed an affiliate business based on product recommendations at The Strategist, then extended that model to other titles like The Verge and The Cut, Pauley said. He thinks PopSugar can become a similar source of steady affiliate revenue. Group Nine Media also brings its massive social following to Vox Media, which the publisher hopes to use to boost its performance marketing business. G9 Direct, a Group Nine Media product that helps drive conversions on social platforms, could help Vox Media improve its bottom-of-the-funnel offering for brands, and combining the two publishers’ data will enable Vox Media to create new audience segments. “We think we have separated ourselves from the pack, in terms of our multiplatform reach and leadership in major consumer categories,” Pauley said. “It’s what the marketing community has been pressing for, for the last six years.” Vox Media and Group Nine Media Announce Merger, Bringing Further Media Consolidation

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Vox Media Expands CRO Remit to Include Subscriptions Oversight

The publisher has reorganized following its merger with Group Nine Media

Mark Stenberg

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