Vox Media and Group Nine Media Announce Merger

Digital media companies Vox Media and Group Nine Media are planning a merger, people familiar with the matter tell Adweek. The combined company would instantly become one of the largest digital media publishers in the U.S., helping it compete more effectively against the scale of social platforms for advertising budgets. The two publishers would reach a combined audience of 115 million unduplicated visitors monthly, according to Comscore data provided to Adweek. “The business rationale behind this merger is to grow revenue, increase scale and combine these incredibly powerful and complementary portfolios,” Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff told employees in an internal memo. “While our combined scale is remarkable, it’s the passion that their teams put into their work that will make this combination a natural fit.” With an Eye on Speed, Group Nine Media Is the Latest Publisher Flaunting On-Site Shopping The tie-up comes amidst a period of rapid consolidation in the publishing world, including BuzzFeed’s June acquisition of Complex Media and the combined entity's debut last week on the public markets via a special acquisition company. The merged Vox and Group Nine is expected to generate more than $700 million in revenue in 2022 and more than $100 million in profit, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. Details of the merger The all-stock deal will give Vox Media 75% ownership of the new company and Group Nine Media 25%, according to The Journal. Bankoff will lead the new company, and Group Nine Media founder and CEO Ben Lerer will take a role on Vox Media’s board of directors. The deal has not yet been signed, but Bankoff told Vox Media employees that the arrangement will likely be finalized in early 2022. Group Nine Media includes titles such as NowThis, Thrillist and Pop Sugar. None of the sites are paywalled, and they generate revenue primarily through advertising, a studios operation, affiliate commerce and licensing deals. Vox Media, which acquired the spirits publisher Punch in August, has been actively exploring options to expand, Bankoff said. It acquired New York Magazine in September 2019 and has used the purchase to diversify its revenue stream. Media consolidation continues The Vox Media and Group Nine merger would mark the latest in a series of high-profile media consolidations over the last year. In October alone, Dotdash acquired Meredith Corp. and Axel Springer purchased Politico in two landmark tie-ups. Other deals include Recurrent Ventures’ acquisition of Mel Magazine, BDG’s purchase of Some Spider Studios and a slew of additions to the Outside Media bundle. Digital media publishers have rushed to consolidate in order to reach larger audiences, allowing them to better compete for advertising budgets against social media platforms and increase the size of their first-party databases ahead of third-party cookie deprecation. The SPAC market, which offers private firms a less demanding route to becoming publicly traded companies, has cooled in recent months. The price of BuzzFeed shares has dropped from $10 to $6.25 in its first week of trading, and Vice Media announced in September that it had shelved its plans to go public using the financial vehicle.

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Vox Media and Group Nine Media Announce Merger, Bringing Further Media Consolidation

The tie-up would create one of the largest digital media companies

Mark Stenberg

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