CEO Jim Bankoff and President Pam Wasserstein address the newly expanded Vox Media team
After announcing plans to merge New York Media and Vox Media, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff and President Pam Wasserstein shared with their staff that the merger is official. This celebratory note marks the first day in an exciting new chapter for the company.
Team,
We’re very happy to let you know that the New York Media / Vox Media merger closed early this morning; today we move ahead as one Vox Media, creating a sustainable, diversified business and a culture built on our commitment to the highest quality work and shared values. We’d like to take a moment to reflect on what we hope to accomplish together and how we want to get there. We also want to encourage you to take this as an opportunity to reset, to think differently, to learn from and share knowledge with your new colleagues.
Simply put, our goal is to be the best modern media company — to publish conversation-starting journalism, to create the most relevant and entertaining programming, to serve audiences across all platforms, to innovate best-in-class publishing and advertising technology, and to foster a work environment where the brightest minds can collaborate and thrive. We feature leading editorial networks that reach a premium audience at scale across every essential topical and advertising category. In all that we do, our commitment to editorial excellence serves as our foundation, and our ambition is boundless.
Vox Media now boasts a workforce of more than 1,250 people and the company’s work reaches an audience of hundreds of millions across podcasts, websites, TV and OTT, social platforms, events, conferences, newsletters and a groundbreaking print magazine. Our revenue team offers a full suite of advertising services to brand building and lead-generating marketers, who will benefit from the new category of independent media company we’re creating. Our technology platforms and products benefit not just our company, but the industry at large. All of our work is enabled by corporate and shared services teams who prioritize professionalism and commitment to problem solving.
We’re also glad to be able to share some tangible ways in which employees will benefit from the merger, both immediately and in the months ahead. Beginning in January, all employees who are eligible for benefits will be able to participate in Vox Media’s 401(k) plan, which includes a company match with no vesting period, and join Vox Media’s other robust health and wellness benefits plans. Copies of New York Magazine will be delivered to Vox Media’s New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, and San Francisco offices, and we encourage you to spend time with our beloved print product. And since we’re platform-agnostic, all employees will receive complimentary access to New York’s digital subscription product by registering with a Vox Media email address. The New York office at 75 Varick Street is also starting a snacks program.
Today, we also begin to roll out a new visual identity for our corporate Vox Media brand: a bold, modern logo and design aesthetic. You’ll see this new corporate branding on our website, in our offices, and beyond in the coming hours and weeks. The new image is functional, beautiful, and intentional in its simplicity — no frills or embellishments — to anchor the expressive logos of our diverse editorial properties and lines of business.
We’d like to extend our thanks and appreciation to those employees who worked on the merger, as well as those who are working carefully on integration and determining how best to weave our businesses and cultures together.
We have much to learn from each other, and we hope that every one of you is as excited about that opportunity as we are. We’ve already seen this enthusiasm begin to play out in initial meetings to explore how we’ll work together in podcasts and entertainment, commerce, advertising, and more. As we said when we announced the merger, our businesses are incredibly complementary and there is very little overlap. While others in the industry retrench, we’re very well-positioned for continued growth and smart investments in our future. To everyone, congratulations and thank you for your patience, hard work and open-minded spirit as we chart this new course forged from shared values and ambitions.
Onward,
Jim & Pam