''Vox'' () is an American news and opinion website owned by
Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company founded in Washington, D.C. with operational headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by CEO Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''S ...
. The website was founded in April 2014 by
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein (born May 9, 1984) is an American American liberalism, liberal political commentator and journalist. He is currently a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' columnist and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founde ...
,
Matt Yglesias, and
Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of
explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
. ''Vox'' has been described as left-leaning and
liberal.
History
Prior to founding ''Vox'',
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein (born May 9, 1984) is an American American liberalism, liberal political commentator and journalist. He is currently a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' columnist and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founde ...
worked for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' as the head of
Wonkblog, a
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...
blog.
When Klein attempted to launch a new site using funding from the newspaper's editors, his proposal was turned down and Klein subsequently left ''The Washington Post'' for a position with
Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company founded in Washington, D.C. with operational headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by CEO Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''S ...
, another communications company, in January 2014.
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''
David Carr associated Klein's exit for ''Vox'' with other "big-name journalists" leaving newspapers for digital start-ups, such as
Walter Mossberg and
Kara Swisher (of ''
Recode
''Recode'' (stylized as recode; formerly ''Re/code'') was a technology news website that focused on the business of Silicon Valley. Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher founded it in January 2014, after they left Dow Jones and the similar website ...
'', which was later acquired by and integrated into Vox),
David Pogue, and
Nate Silver
Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, political analyst, author, sports gambler, and poker player who Sabermetrics, analyzes baseball, basketball and Psephology, elections. He is the founder of ''FiveThirty ...
.
He described Vox Media as "a technology company that produces media" rather than its inverse, associated with "Old Media".
From his new position, Klein worked towards establishing ''Vox'', including hiring new journalists for the site.
Klein expected to "improve the technology of news" and build an online platform better equipped for making news understandable.
The new site's 20-person staff was chosen for their expertise in topic areas and included ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
''
Matthew Yglesias,
Melissa Bell, and Klein's colleagues from ''The Washington Post''.
''Vox'' was launched on April 6, 2014, with Klein serving as editor-in-chief.
Klein's opening
editorial essay, "How politics makes us stupid", explained his distress about political polarization in the context of
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...
professor
Dan Kahan's theories on how people protect themselves from information that conflicts with their core beliefs.
In June 2016, ''Vox'' suspended contributor
Emmett Rensin for a series of tweets calling for anti-Trump
riots
A riot or mob violence is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people.
Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The p ...
, including one on June 3, 2016, that urged, "If Trump comes to your town, start a riot." The tweets drew attention after violent
anti-Trump protests took place in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
, on the day of Rensin's tweet.
Elizabeth Plank was hired in 2016 as a political correspondent, and in 2017 launched her own series with Vox Media, called ''Divided States of Women''.
In September 2017, Klein announced that he was taking on a new role as editor-at-large, and that
Lauren Williams, who joined ''Vox'' a few months after its founding, was the new editor-in-chief. In late 2020, Klein, Williams, and Yglesias left the site. While ''Vox'' had been founded with prominent journalists, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff said that their brands had mature, mainstream audiences that no longer relied on personalities.
Swati Sharma was named editor-in-chief in February 2021. A managing editor of ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 185 ...
'' at the time of her appointment, she was expected to assume the position in March 2021.
In November 2022, it was reported by ''
Reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
'' magazine that
Sam Bankman-Fried—founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange
FTX—had issued major grants to a number of predominantly
left-leaning political media outlets, including ''Vox''.
Content
According to ''Vox'' founding editors, the site seeks to explain news by providing additional contextual information not usually found in traditional news sources. To reuse work from authors prior to the relaunch in 2014, ''Vox'' creates "card stacks" in bright canary yellow that provide context and define terms within an article. The cards are perpetually maintained as a form of "wiki page written by one person with a little attitude".
As an example, a card about the term "insurance exchange" may be reused on stories about the
Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...
.
''Vox'' uses Vox Media's Chorus
content management system
A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content ( content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
, which enables journalists to easily create articles with complex visual effects and transitions, such as photos that change as the reader scrolls.
Vox Media's properties target educated households with six-figure incomes and a head of house less than 35 years old.
In 2018, Vox launched ''Future Perfect'', a reporting project that examines the world through
philanthropy
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
and
effective altruism
Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates impartially calculating benefits and prioritizing causes to provide the greatest good. It is motivated by "using evidence and reason to figure out how to b ...
, initially funded by the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
.
Video
''Vox'' has a YouTube channel by the same name where they have regularly posted videos on news and informational subjects since 2014.
These videos are accompanied by an article on their website. The themes covered in the videos are usually similar to the themes covered in the regular, written articles on the website. The channel has over 12.5 million subscribers and over 3.6 billion views .
Content surrounds current affairs, timelines of certain events, and interesting facts.
In May 2018, ''Vox'' partnered with
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
to release a weekly TV show called ''
Explained''.
Podcasts

''Vox'' distributes numerous podcasts, all hosted by ''Vox'' staff, as part of the ''
Vox Media Podcast Network'':
* ''The Weeds'' is a twice-weekly
roundtable podcast, hosted by Yglesias and immigration correspondent Dara Lind, focusing on U.S. national news with a focus on the fine details of public policy.
Senior politics reporter Jane Coaston was a regular co-host before joining the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''.
* ''The Gray Area with
Sean Illing'' (formerly the "Vox Conversations" podcast) is a weekly interview podcast in which Sean Illing and other hosts across the Vox newsroom interview guests in politics, media, science, and culture.
* ''I Think You're Interesting'' is a weekly interview podcast about the arts, entertainment, and pop culture, hosted by ''Vox''s "critic at large"
Emily St. James.
* ''Worldly'' (2017–21) was a weekly roundtable podcast focusing on U.S. foreign policy and international affairs, hosted by ''Vox'' foreign-and-security-policy writers Jennifer Williams, Zack Beauchamp, and Alex Ward;
Yochi Dreazen also previously hosted.
* ''The Impact'' is a weekly narrative podcast hosted by Kliff investigating the effects of policy decisions in practice.
* ''Today, Explained'' is a daily podcast, hosted by Sean Ramaswaram and
Noel King, providing short explanations of items in the news.
* ''Future Perfect'' is a weekly podcast, hosted by
Dylan Matthews, exploring provocative ideas with the potential to radically improve the world, often discussing ideas associated with
effective altruism
Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates impartially calculating benefits and prioritizing causes to provide the greatest good. It is motivated by "using evidence and reason to figure out how to b ...
.
* ''Primetime'' is a short-run podcast hosted by Emily St. James. Season 1 (six episodes) focused on TV's relationship with the presidency and was released on a weekly schedule.
*''Unexplainable'' is a weekly science podcast hosted by Noam Hassenfeld and a panel of experts exploring unanswered questions and the ways scientists are trying to answer them.
*''Land of the Giants'' is a weekly podcast hosted by Shirin Ghaffary and Alex Kantrowitz where each season covers a tech giant like
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
,
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...
,
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
, and
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
and their dominance in their respective technology sector.
*''Vox Quick Hits'' was a daily podcast consisting of short episodes covering topics in news, politics, and pop culture. Vox Quick Hits ended on September 10, 2021.
Reception
In March 2014, before it had officially launched, ''Vox'' was criticized by
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
media commentators, including
Erick Erickson, for a video it had published arguing the
U.S. public debt "isn't a problem right now".
The website's launch received significant media attention.
Websites noted that the launch came around the same time as other data and explainer websites like ''
FiveThirtyEight'' and the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''
The Upshot
''The Upshot'' is a website published by ''The New York Times'' which spreads articles combining data visualization with conventional journalistic analysis of news.
History
''The Upshot'' was first announced in March 2014 and was officially laun ...
. ''Vox'' was described as trying to act as a "
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...
for ongoing news stories".
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry at ''
The Week
''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...
'' argued that the website produced "partisan commentary in question-and-answer disguise" and criticized the site for having a "starting lineup
hat
A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
was mostly made up of ideological liberals". ''
The Week
''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...
''s Ryu Spaeth described the site's operations as "...essentially tak
ngthe news (in other words, what is happening in the world at any given moment in time) and fram
ngit in a way that appeals to its young, liberal audience." Damon Linker also criticized them, calling them "a parody of liberal faux-neutrality," and that "partisanship is so obvious," in an Obama interview they conducted, "that it's hard to imagine anyone being fooled."
''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'', commenting on Klein's launching essay "How politics makes us stupid",
said the website was "bright and promising" and site's premise of "more, better, and more lucidly presented information" was "profoundly honourable", and positively compared the site's mission to
John Keats's
negative capability.
In an opinion piece in ''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...
'',
Christopher J. Harper criticized the site for numerous reporting mistakes.
The co-founder of ''Vox'',
Matthew Yglesias, after leaving the company, stated in an interview for ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 185 ...
'' that he was at odds not just with those at ''Vox'', but mainstream media as a whole, saying The people making the media are young college graduates in big cities, and that kind of politics makes a lot of sense to them,' he said. 'And we keep seeing that older people, and working-class people of all races and ethnicities, just don't share that entire worldview.
Accolades
In 2015, the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to " ...
presented
Julia Belluz the Robert B. Balles Prize for Critical Thinking for her work on ''Vox''.
Original programming by ''Vox'' has been recognized by the
News & Documentary Emmy Awards, which are presented by the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...
. In 2017, the documentary ''2016 Olympics: What Rio Doesn't Want the World to See'' was nominated in the "Outstanding News Special" category, ''Vox Pop'' was nominated in the "Outstanding Arts, Culture and Entertainment Report" and "Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction" categories, and ''The Secret Life of Muslims'' was nominated in the "Outstanding Short Documentary" category. In 2018, ''Borders'' was nominated in the "Outstanding Video Journalism: News" category, and ''Earworm'' received nominations in the "Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction" and "Outstanding New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture" categories. Between 2017 and 2021, Vox journalists David Roberts, Umair Irfan, and Rebecca Leber won five
SEAL Awards for environmental journalism.
Readership
''Vox'' received 8.2 million unique visitors in July 2014. In October 2021, readership was estimated to be 19.7 million visitors.
In a 2017 interview on
Nieman Lab, Klein stated: "We watch our audience data pretty closely, and our audience data does not show or suggest to us that we are overwhelmingly read on one side or the other of the political sphere, which is good.
See also
*
References
External links
*
{{Vox Media
2014 establishments in the United States
American news websites
Internet properties established in 2014
Progressivism in the United States
Vox Media