''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews,

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...

news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media's proprietary multimedia publishing platform Chorus. In 2014,

Nilay Patel Nilay Patel is an American editor and blogger who has been editor-in-chief of technology news website ''The Verge'' since 2014. Education In 2003, Patel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Chicago and in ...

was named

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

and

Dieter Bohn ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...

executive editor; Helen Havlak was named editorial director in 2017. ''The Verge'' won five Webby Awards for the year 2012 including awards for Best Writing (Editorial), Best Podcast for ''The Vergecast'', Best Visual Design, Best Consumer Electronics Site, and Best Mobile News App.

History

Origins

Between March and April 2011, up to nine of ''

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editor ...

''s writers, editors, and product developers, including

Joshua Topolsky Joshua Ryan Topolsky (born October 19, 1977) is an American technology journalist. He is also a record producer, and DJ under the stage name Joshua Ryan. Topolsky was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of technology news network ''The Verge'' ...

, left AOL, the company behind that website, to start a new gadget site. The other departing editors included managing editor

and staffers Paul Miller, Ross Miller, Joanna Stern, Chris Ziegler, as well as product developers Justin Glow, and Dan Chilton. In early April 2011, Topolsky announced that their unnamed new site would be produced in partnership with sports news website '' SB Nation'', debuting some time in the fall. Topolsky lauded ''SB Nation'' similar interest in the future of publishing, including what he described as their beliefs in independent journalism and in-house development of their own content delivery tools. Jim Bankoff of ''SB Nation'' saw an overlap in the two sites' demographics and an opportunity to expand ''SB Nation'' model. Bankoff previously worked at AOL in 2005, where he led their ''Engadget'' acquisition. Other news outlets viewed the partnership as positive for both ''SB Nation'' and Topolsky's staff, and negative for AOL's outlook. Bankoff, chairman and

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 Vox Media (owner of ''SB Nation''), said in a 2011 interview that though the company had started out with a focus on sports, other categories including consumer technology had growth potential for the company. Development of Vox Media's content management system (CMS), Chorus, was led by Trei Brundrett, who later became the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

for the company.

''This Is My Next''

Following news of his untitled partnership with ''SB Nation'' in April 2011, Topolsky announced that the ''Engadget'' podcast hosted by Patel, Paul Miller, and himself would continue at an interim site called ''This Is My Next''. By August 2011, the site had reached 1 million unique visitors and 3.4 million page views. By October 2011, the site had 3 million unique views per month and 10 million total page views. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' listed the site in its Best Blogs of 2011, calling the prototype site "exemplary". The site closed upon ''The Verge''s launch on November 1, 2011. On June 11, 2014, ''The Verge'' launched a new section called "This Is My Next", edited by former editor David Pierce, as a buyer's guide for consumer electronics. By 2022, this section had been retitled simply "Buying Guide".

Launch

''The Verge'' launched November 1, 2011, along with an announcement of a new parent company: Vox Media. According to the company, the site launched with 4 million unique visitors and 20 million pageviews. At the time of Topolsky's departure, ''Engadget'' had 14 million unique visitors. Vox Media overall doubled its unique visitors to about 15 million during the last half of 2012. ''The Verge'' had 12 former Engadget staffers working with Topolsky at the time of launch. In 2013, ''The Verge'' launched a new science section, ''Verge Science'', with former '' Wired'' editor Katie Drummond leading the effort. Patel replaced Topolsky as editor-in-chief in mid-2014. Journalist

Walt Mossberg Walter S. Mossberg (born March 27, 1947) is an American technology journalist and moderator. From 1991 through 2013, he was the principal technology columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal''. He also co-founded ''AllThingsD'', ''Recode'' an ...

joined ''The Verge'' editing team after Vox Media acquired ''Recode'' in 2015. By 2016, the website's advertising had shifted from display advertisements, matched with articles' contents, to partnerships and advertisements adjusted to the user.

2016–present

Vox Media revamped ''The Verge'' visual design for its fifth anniversary in November 2016. Its logo featured a modified Penrose triangle, an

impossible object An impossible object (also known as an impossible figure or an undecidable figure) is a type of optical illusion that consists of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and naturally understood as representing a projection of a three-di ...

. On November 1, ''The Verge'' launched version 3.0 of its news platform, offering a redesigned website along with the new logo. In September 2016, ''The Verge'' fired deputy editor Chris Ziegler after it learned that he had been working for

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

since July. Helen Havlak was promoted to editorial director in mid-2017. In 2017, ''The Verge'' launched "Guidebook" to host technology product reviews. In May 2018, ''Verge Science'' launched a

YouTube channel YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second most vis ...

, which had more than 638,000 subscribers and 30 million views by January 2019. The channel received more than 5.3 million views in November 2018 alone. In March 2022, Dieter Bohn announced his resignation from The Verge in his position of Executive Editor, and that he would be moving to a new position at

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

. ''The Verge'' redesigned its user experience in September 2022 with an edgier logo and more colorful visual design. Its new home page format resembled a Twitter feed, incorporating external conversations from social media and reporting from other publications. The new format will, in part, reduce aggregation reporting.

Content

Podcasts

''The Verge'' broadcasts a live weekly

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

, ''The Vergecast''. The inaugural episode was November 4, 2011. It included a video stream of the hosts. A second weekly podcast was introduced on November 8, 2011. Unlike ''The Vergecast'', ''The Verge Mobile Show'' was primarily focused on mobile phones. ''The Verge'' also launched the weekly podcast ''Ctrl-Walt-Delete'', hosted by

, in September 2015. ''The Verge'' ''What's Tech'' podcast was named among iTunes's best of 2015. The podcast ''Why'd You Push That Button?'', launched in 2017 and co-hosted by Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany, received a Podcast Award in the "This Week in Tech Technology Category" in 2018. Editor-in-chief Nilay Patel hosts an interview podcast called Decoder.

Video content

''On The Verge''

On August 6, 2011, in an interview with the firm

Edelman Edelman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Abram Wolf Edelman (a.k.a. Abraham Edelman; 1832–1907), Polish-born American rabbi; the first rabbi in Los Angeles, California * Adam Edelman (born 1991), American-born four-time Is ...

, ''The Verge'' co-founder

Marty Moe Martin Troen Moe (born ) is an American business executive, and the president of Vox Media. Early in his career, he was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and an adviser to Lawrence Summers, United States Secretary of the Treas ...

announced it was launching ''The Verge Show'', a web television series. After its launch, the show was named ''On The Verge''. The first episode was recorded on Monday, November 14, 2011, with guest Matias Duarte. The show is a technology news entertainment show, and its format is similar to that of a late-night talk show, but it is broadcast over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

, not on

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. The show's first episode was released on November 15, 2011. Ten episodes of ''On The Verge'' were broadcast, with the most recent episode going out on November 10, 2012. On May 24, 2013, it was announced that the show would return under a new weekly format, alongside a new logo and theme tune.

Controversy

2018 PC build guide

In September 2018, ''The Verge'' published the article "How to Build a Custom PC for Editing, Gaming or Coding" and uploaded a video to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...

entitled "How we Built a $2000 Custom Gaming PC", which was criticized for containing errors on almost every step presented by the video's reporter, Stefan Etienne, such as PSU being installed in the wrong direction preventing its cooling fan from functioning properly, improperly installing the AIO cooler, forgetting a screw on the

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...

heatsink, and naming LEDs as a main reason to buy RAM. After initially disabling comments, ''The Verge'' removed the video though reuploads exist. In February 2019, lawyers from ''The Verge'' parent company Vox Media filed a DMCA takedown notice, requesting that YouTube remove videos critical of ''The Verge''s video, alleging copyright infringement. YouTube took down two of the videos, uploaded by YouTube channels BitWit and ReviewTechUSA, while applying a copyright "strike" to these two channels. YouTube later reinstated the two videos and retracted the copyright "strikes" after a request from ''Verge'' editor Nilay Patel, although Patel acknowledged that he agreed with the legal argument that led to their removal. Timothy B. Lee of ''

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sc ...

'' described this controversy as an example of the Streisand effect, saying that while law regarding fair use is unclear regarding this type of situation, "the one legal precedent ... suggests ... that this kind of video is solidly within the bounds of copyright's fair use doctrine." Shortly after the PC build guide was released, people began to

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human ...

and harass Etienne on his social media accounts by creating jokes related to the build. The trolling and harassment continued up until September 2021, when YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips released a collaboration video with Etienne, where he builds a PC with the correct steps and tools. The video received positive reception and ended the PC build controversy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verge American technology news websites Computing websites Internet broadcasting Internet properties established in 2011 Streaming television Mass media in New York City Podcasting companies Video blogs Vox Media