By Lukas I. Alpert
Companies like BuzzFeed, Vice and Vox were once worth billions, but shifting audiences and declines in advertising have sent their values plummeting
Jim Bankoff, co-founder and CEO of Vox Media, announced on Wednesday that his company was selling its podcasting division, New York magazine and Vox.com to James Murdoch's Lupa Systems.
For digital-media companies that banked on social-media buzz and venture-capital hype, the rise was rapid and the fall just as swift.
Ten years ago, companies like Vox Media, BuzzFeed and Vice were attracting major investment with valuations topping $1 billion, putting them in a rarified space in an industry where fortunes were largely heading the other way.
Fast forward to today, and Vice has emerged from bankruptcy a shell of its former self, BuzzFeed was recently acquired in a fire sale and Vox on Wednesday announced it had sold off its most valuable properties.
So what happened?
The decline of these former darlings was driven by a combination of shifting consumer habits and ad spending and a venture-capital-charged hype machine that aggressively overvalued these companies' potential from the start.
Much of the investment was a bet that the companies would keep attracting readers and thereby increase profitability, leading one day to an initial public offering or big-ticket sale to a strategic buyer. None of that panned out.
For starters, the traffic model most of these companies relied on has withered away. One of the biggest drivers in their early days was the huge amount of traffic coming from social media, largely Facebook and Twitter. For several years, the model worked, pushing the online audiences for many digital-media names ahead of traditional stalwarts like the Washington Post and the New York Times (NYT).
But the gains proved fleeting. By the late 2010s, platforms like Meta's (META) Facebook and Twitter were throttling back how much traffic they sent elsewhere as they began to prioritize keeping customers on their own sites for longer.
And companies like Facebook and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL) (GOOG) increasingly grew to dominate online advertising, leaving less and less available for digital-media outlets to fight over. Soon, smaller companies like Mic, Mashable and Refinery29 fell by the wayside.
In recent years, the decline of the business model has accelerated as artificial intelligence has limited the amount of traffic being sent through channels like Google search. On top of that, consumers now spend more time on video platforms like YouTube and TikTok that are not engineered to send large numbers of users to outside media sites.
The first of the big digital-media giants to fall was Vice, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023. Once valued at an eye-popping $5.7 billion, with major investment from A&amp;E Networks, Walt Disney (DIS), 21st Century Fox and a slew of private-equity backers, Vice found that its mix of edgy content and expensive film and video projects was unsustainable.
It was sold for just $350 million to its biggest creditors out of the bankruptcy proceedings. It continues to operate, but as a much smaller company than in its heyday.
BuzzFeed, at its peak in 2016, was valued at $1.7 billion following a major investment round from Comcast's (CMCSA) NBCUniversal. Despite great fanfare and aggressive expansion - and growing revenue - the site struggled with profitability.
In 2021, BuzzFeed (BZFD) went public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, and things started to fall apart. The stock fell 83% in its first year of trading and dipped below $1 more than once, prompting delisting warnings.
Earlier this year, the company warned it could soon run out of money, raising the specter of bankruptcy. In early May, it missed a deadline for a key debt payment.
Last week, 52% of the company was sold to media mogul Byron Allen for $120 million: $20 million in cash and the rest in the form of a promissory note due in five years.
As for Vox, the company announced Wednesday that it was selling its profitable podcasting business, New York magazine and its namesake site Vox.com to James Murdoch's Lupa Systems. (Murdoch's father, Rupert Murdoch, is the controlling shareholder of News Corp, the parent company of Dow Jones, which publishes MarketWatch. James Murdoch's brother, Lachlan Murdoch, is chair of the News Corp board.)
The sales price for the Vox properties wasn't disclosed, but the New York Times reported that the deal was valued at more than $300 million.
At its height, Vox Media had a valuation of $1 billion.
The company's remaining websites - the Verge, Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation and the Dodo - have been carved off as part of a new, as yet unnamed company.
&#34;Separating into two distinct companies best sets up our brands, shows, businesses, talent, and teams to continue to lead and prosper in the changing media landscape,&#34; Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff said in a memo to staff. &#34;Each company will be better positioned to grow within a focused portfolio of complementary businesses.&#34;
-Lukas I. Alpert
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-20-26 1442ET

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Vox Media has sold its podcasting division, New York magazine, and Vox.com to James Murdoch's Lupa Systems, marking a significant decline for once-prominent digital media companies like BuzzFeed and Vice. These companies, once valued in the billions, have struggled due to changing consumer habits and reduced advertising revenue. The deal for Vox's properties is reported to be over $300 million, as the company restructures into a new entity with remaining brands like the Verge and Eater.

- Digital media companies like BuzzFeed, Vice, and Vox have experienced significant declines in value due to changing consumer habits and reduced advertising revenue.  
- Vox Media announced the sale of its key assets, including its podcasting division and Vox.com, to James Murdoch's Lupa Systems, as the industry grapples with a shift away from reliance on social media traffic.  
- The once high-flying companies now face challenges exacerbated by competition from video platforms, ultimately reshaping the landscape of digital media.

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Vox's sale marks the end of an era for a once-booming form of digital media. Here's how it all came undone.