Group Nine Media was an American

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The company comprises

Thrillist Thrillist is an online media website covering food, drink, travel and entertainment. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in New York City, United States. In October 2016, Thrillist merged with internet brands '' The Dodo'', NowThis Ne ...

NowThis NowThis News is a progressive social media-focused news organization founded in 2012. The company posts short (in most cases 15 seconds long) news videos and hyperpartisan content. History NowThis News was founded by ''Huffington Post'' co-fo ...

, The Dodo, and Seeker. The four brands and former brand

Sourcefed SourceFed was a YouTube channel and news website created by Philip DeFranco in January 2012 as part of YouTube's original channel initiative, and was originally produced by James Haffner. The main SourceFed channel mainly focused on popular cu ...

, merged to form Group Nine Media in October 2016. In October 2019, Group Nine Media acquired PopSugar. In December 2020, Group Nine formed its own corporate SPAC to use the public funding for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination. In December 2021,

Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...

announced its intention to acquire Group Nine. The transaction was completed in February 2022, and Group Nine was folded into Vox Media.

Ownership

At the time of the 2016 merger,

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chann ...

announced a $100 million minority investment in the collective organization, becoming the biggest

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

before

Axel Springer Axel Cäsar Springer (2 May 1912 – 22 September 1985) was a German publisher and founder of what is now Axel Springer SE, the largest media publishing firm in Europe. By the early 1960s his print titles dominated the West German daily press ma ...

. Discovery also acquired the right to obtain a majority stake later if it so chooses. In 2017, Discovery led a $40 million funding round in the digital media company. Group Nine Media raised $50 million in new funding in 2019, led by its lead investor Discovery along with participation from German publishing firm Axel Springer. Ben Lerer, founder of

and managing director of Lerer Hippeau Ventures, serves as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Group Nine Media. On 13 December 2021, it was announced that

would acquire Group Nine Media. The acquisition was completed on 22 February 2022.

References

External links

* Vox Media Holding companies based in New York City Mass media companies based in New York City 2016 establishments in New York City Mass media companies established in 2016 American companies established in 2016 Former Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries 2022 mergers and acquisitions {{US-company-stub