{"id":761,"date":"2015-09-14T00:58:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T04:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/vox-media-journalism-is-commoditized-technology-is-not\/"},"modified":"2015-09-14T00:58:59","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T04:58:59","slug":"vox-media-journalism-is-commoditized-technology-is-not","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/vox-media-journalism-is-commoditized-technology-is-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Vox Media: Journalism is commoditized, technology is not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Investment capital\u00a0has been pouring into\u00a0Vox Media over the\u00a0last couple of years, with the company recently\u00a0raising\u00a0$200 million from NBC Universal (owned by Comcast) at a post\u00a0money valuation of approximately $1B. This is orders of magnitude higher than prices paid\u00a0even for the previous cohort of “disruptive”\u00a0digital media\u00a0companies such as HuffPo and Bleacher Report.<\/p>\n

Vox has a strong portfolio of digital editorial brands, including\u00a0SB Nation, The Verge, Vox, Polygon, Curbed, Eater, and others. Approximately 54% of its users are between the ages of 18 and 34.\u00a0Comcast views the investment as an opportunity to supplement its core\u00a0business that\u00a0has posted declining viewership among younger\u00a0demographics as a result of their cord cutting and shift to digital media consumption.<\/p>\n

But what\u00a0is the key driver of Vox’s\u00a0historic growth and what has allowed it to start winning in a hyper competitive and seemingly saturated industry? At the heart of\u00a0the company\u2019s success is Chorus, a proprietary content management system.<\/p>\n

(read about Chorus in more depth here: https:\/\/www.cmscritic.com\/singing-the-praises-of-chorus\/<\/a> and here: http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2012\/05\/07\/a-closer-look-at-chorus-the-next-generation-publishing-platform-that-runs-vox-media\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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The short version of the above links is that Chorus improves editorial workflow, facilitates content creation and publishing as well as collaboration between product teams and writers, is extremely design focused, and relies on data analytics to inform editorial staffers. Chorus is a technology that is embedded in Vox\u2019s digital-first DNA. This is in stark contrast to other media firms (many of which are still transitioning from print to digital) whose content management systems have been built piecemeal over several years and have varying degrees of seamlessness and effectiveness. This is a competitive advantage for Vox, as Chorus turns the company into a platform model for growth. For example, when it acquires a new digital property, it is able to merge all of the new content into Chorus.<\/p>\n

Chorus turns high quality journalism into a scale business. It does this by fostering the rapid production of high quality content generation across Vox\u2019s thousands of \u201ccommunities\u201d (take a look at www.silverscreenandroll.com<\/a>, SB Nation\u2019s Lakers specific community). Providing very specific cohorts of users with access to this content drives Vox\u2019s value creation model.<\/p>\n

Chorus also serves as the backbone for Vox\u2019s value capture model. The majority of Vox\u2019s revenues are generated from advertising on its various properties. The company recently opened \u201cChorus for Advertisers\u201d which gives advertisers access to \u201cthe same data, workflow, and product technology that has driven astonishing results\u201d for Vox\u2019s media brands.<\/p>\n

The global advertising market is approximately $250B and 70% of it is brand awareness advertising. The online advertising opportunity is approximately $25B and the vast majority is direct response advertising. Vox will be able to leverage its technology to offer advertisers a truly unique opportunity to build their brands. This is an important differentiator and a strong driver of Vox\u2019s current valuation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investment capital\u00a0has been pouring into\u00a0Vox Media over the\u00a0last couple of years, with the company recently\u00a0raising\u00a0$200 million from NBC Universal (owned by Comcast) at a post\u00a0money valuation of approximately $1B. This is orders of magnitude higher than prices paid\u00a0even for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-761","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/digital-winners-and-losers\/","yoast_head":"\nVox Media: Journalism is commoditized, technology is not - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/vox-media-journalism-is-commoditized-technology-is-not\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vox Media: Journalism is commoditized, technology is not - Digital Innovation and Transformation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Investment capital\u00a0has been pouring into\u00a0Vox Media over the\u00a0last couple of years, with the company recently\u00a0raising\u00a0$200 million from NBC Universal (owned by Comcast) at a post\u00a0money valuation of approximately $1B. 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