The Dodo is an American media brand and digital publisher focused on telling animals' stories. The Dodo is headquartered 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 ...

History

The Dodo was launched in January 2014 by Izzie Lerer, the daughter of media executive

Kenneth Lerer Kenneth Lerer is an American businessman and a media executive. He was the chairman and co-founder of ''The Huffington Post'', an American news website acquired by Aol in 2011. Lerer is also a managing director of Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and chai ...

, and journalist

Kerry Lauerman Kerry Lauerman is an American journalist. He has been the top editor at Mic and Salon, a senior editor at ''The Washington Post'' and ''Mother Jones'' and co-founder of the animal-focused site The Dodo. He is executive editor at ''Forbes ...

. The company—named after the

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...

, an extinct bird from the island of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

— was founded by Lerer out of "a personal passion for the subject matter..." Lerer has a PhD in animal studies with a focus on animal ethics and human relationships from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and launched the website after noticing the viral success of animal videos online but seeing no one "really owned the space." The Dodo became one of the most popular Facebook publishers, garnering 1 billion video views from the social network in November 2015, and was crowned the No. 1 animal brand on all of

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

by the

Webby Awards The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

in 2019. In late 2017, The Dodo launched "El Dodo," its first non-English language channel to reach Spanish speaking audiences. The Dodo's editorial and video production staff unionized with the

Writers Guild of America, East The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a labor union representing writers in film, television, radio, news, and online media. The Writers Guild of America, East is affiliated with the Writers Guild of America West. Together the guilds admi ...

in April 2018.

Expansion

The brand expanded into longer-form storytelling with its first TV series, "''Dodo Heroes"'' on

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

in June 2018, which went on to become the network's top-performing freshman series and was picked up for a second season in 2019. In June 2018, The Dodo held its first ever "Best Dog Day Ever" pop-up event in

, which attracted over 1400 dogs and their owners. Based on the one day event's success, The Dodo decided to expand the franchise in 2019 for a month-long "Best Dog Day Ever: Halloween Edition" event in the fall for Tri-State dogs. In July 2019, The Dodo partnered with

VidCon VidCon is an annual convention for fans, creators, executives, and online brands. The event primarily features prominent video stars from across the internet. In October 2020, VidCon Now relaunched as an ongoing, free digital offering. Vetera ...

for the conference's first-ever co-programmed section, ''"The Dodo Pet Zone"'' featuring some of the Internet's most-famous animals. In the summer of 2019, the animal brand launched its children's brand, "Dodo Kids," with a new

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel with launch sponsor

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

' ''"Dora and the Lost City of Gold,"'' and a bespoke content slate of new kids series including ''"Best Animal Friends,"'' ''"Dodo Sing Dodo Dance,"'' and ''"Rescued!"''. Soon thereafter, The Dodo announced its new

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Original series, "'' Izzy Bee's Koala World,''" which debuted in 2020. In July 2019, The Dodo partnered with

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

to develop an

IGTV IGTV, short for ''Instagram TV'', was a standalone video application by Instagram for Android and iOS smartphones. It allowed for longer videos compared to Instagram feeds. IGTV was available as a stand-alone app, though basic functionality was ...

-first series for teens, ''"You Know Me... Now Meet My Pet,"'' featuring young Instagram influencers and their pets. In September 2019, The Dodo pushed into children's book publishing with Scholastic with three books based on the video series. In April 2020 they debuted a new podcast called "An Animal Saved My Life" produced through

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...

. In March 2022, the brand expanded into pet insurance by debuting Fetch by The Dodo. Formerly Petplan, the insurance company and The Dodo partnered to create a pet insurance option that would appeal to The Dodo's audience of pet parents.

Accolades

They are the most "loved" publisher in the world on

Toys for Tots Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. The program was founded in 1947 by reservist Major Bill Hendricks. The ...

(by "love" reactions). The animal brand won a Shorty Social Good award for Best Use of Facebook in 2017 and 2018;

Shorty Award The Shorty Awards (also known as “The Shortys”) honors the most innovative work globally in digital and social media by brands, agencies, nonprofits and creators. The Shortys’ mission is to celebrate, inspire and push the boundaries of exce ...

for Best in Pets and Animals;

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

for its social/animal content and another Shorty Social Good Award for Best Video Series for "Comeback Kids: Animal Edition."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dodo Digital mass media companies Animal websites Animal and pet magazines Animals and humans Animal welfare Digital media New media American news websites Online magazines published in the United States Mass media companies of the United States Online content distribution American environmental websites Environmental magazines Magazines established in 2014 Internet properties established in 2014 2014 establishments in New York City Mass media about Internet culture Vox Media Former Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries Comcast subsidiaries