Jim Bankoff dishes on Vox Media's digital strategy and reveals 2024's toughest challenge and most pleasant surprise

Jim Bankoff is at the forefront of the digital media revolution.

As chief executive of Vox Media, Bankoff oversees some of the most recognizable brands on the internet, including New York Magazine, The Verge, Vox, SB Nation, Eater, PS, and more. The company is also home to some of the top podcasts, such as “Pivot” with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway.

I caught up with Bankoff this week for a conversation about his strategy at Vox Media, the challenges the industry faces, and what has surprised him the most this year as we all prepare to bid adieu to 2024.

Below is the Q&A, lightly edited for style.

This week, The Verge officially rolled out its long-awaited partial pay wall (readers of this newsletter will remember we reported on the plans earlier in the summer). It feels like paywalls are going up everywhere in the news media right now. Tell me a little about the thinking behind this play at The Verge, which has been almost entirely free for as long as I can remember.

I won’t be able to explain it any better than Nilay did in his note to The Verge audience. Access to the work of dozens of the most talented journalists in a product environment that has minimal advertising for less than a cup of coffee each month (and ⅓ the cost of your amazing one-man newsletter, Oliver) is an extraordinary value. The Verge, like most of our Vox Media brands, has a strong bond with its audience that goes beyond the utility of its reporting. We’ve already dramatically exceeded our expectations for sign-ups in the first week. We are also seeing strong initial success with Vox.com’s membership model.

With Google and Meta sucking up most of the advertising dollars, is it simply not possible anymore for digital publishers to sustain strong newsrooms without subscription components? And, with this trend toward paywalls, do you worry at all that the authoritative news brands are going to become a luxury for wealthier readers, while junk information will circulate amongst the masses?

I’m not sure throughout history it was ever possible, in the long term, for news publishers (beyond entertainment and lifestyle categories) to sustain strong newsrooms without a subscription component. Vox Media properties continue to do extremely well with advertisers thanks to our engaged audience and high quality bar. But as social platforms disavow and downrank reported news, and search platforms focus on promoting A.I.-based aggregation of stolen IP and dubious content over linking to source material, we are making the decision to hyperfocus on audience and business strategies that build direct engagement with consumers.

I agree that access to quality information shouldn’t be limited to those who can afford it (although those who do have the means and value it have a responsibility to pay, just as they do for any other good or service they consume.) Thankfully, because of our robust advertising business, we are able to essentially offer a freemium model where we make a good deal of our work openly available.

New York Magazine also launched its own app earlier this week. It's hard for me to believe it did not already have one. What had been the hesitation all these years in launching one? And what changed?

Fair question. Same with Eater which launched their new app only a month ago. New York Magazine under the editorial leadership of David Haskell has been an enormous success. Its editorial strength has propelled its growth even in the absence of a native mobile experience, which was indeed long overdue. Since New York Magazine itself has broad and diverse audiences across The Cut, Vulture, The Strategist, Intelligencer, Curbed, and Grub Street, it was a fairly complex design. We wanted to get it right and we think we have. I mentioned in my last answer that we are hyper-focused on direct consumer engagement and the New York Magazine and Eater apps, which both launched this fall, are further evidence of our investments in these areas. Download them and let us know what you think!

It was also a tough week at Vox Media, given that you had to lay off some staffers and make organizational changes at Thrillist, PS, and Eater. In your memo, you cited needing to adapt to the ever-changing media landscape. Journalists who work in the industry are, unfortunately, quite used to such memos. Do you ever foresee a world in which you and other media leaders are not having to take such actions every year or so?

It was a difficult week parting ways with talented colleagues. I’m grateful to them for all they contributed to our company. I don’t think any industry evolves as rapidly as media does. We are subject to compounding changes in technology, platforms, consumer behaviors, societal shifts and audience tastes, not to mention the economic environment that all businesses face. An independent company like ours needs to frequently re-prioritize our efforts to ensure we are best serving our audiences. Unfortunately, that sometimes means scaling back in one place in order to invest in another. Thrillist and PS, which were iconic web 1.0 brands, are now on a path to meet audiences where they are. In their case that means a smaller team, focusing more on native social and service guides.

Vox Media has leaned hard into producing podcasts. Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway are obviously very important to that business. I'm told their contracts are expiring this year. How are those renewal talks going?

It’s a great joy to work with Kara and Scott. We’re proud to be partners with them in the fastest growing part of our business. One thing that people may not realize about Vox Media is that in addition to being the home of some of the biggest and most relevant media brands, we are also home to one of the largest podcast networks. We boast titles like “Pivot,” “Prof G,” “On,” “Criminal," “Waveform with Marques Brownlee,” “Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara,” “A Touch More with Megan Rapinoe,” and “Sue Bird and Unlocking Us with Brené Brown.” And I mean podcast in the 2024 sense of the word: video and audio productions delivered across platforms.

Our talent lineup is staggeringly strong and connected through its commitment to quality, thoughtful and entertaining work. Our media brands and our podcast network support one another. For instance, Pivot is aligned with New York Magazine, as is Ether Perel’s show, The Verge boasts “The Vergecast” and “Decoder.” Vox has hit shows like “Today, Explained” and “The Gray Area.” We have many successful sports podcasts with talent like Lonzo Ball, Cam Heyward, and Kenny Beecham which benefit from alignment with SB Nation. On Tuesday we announced a partnership with Andy Roddick and his show “Served.” You can expect a lot more from us in 2025.

Will Code Conference be back in 2025?

The Code franchise will continue on, but we’re going to evolve the formats to make sure they are fresh and relevant. We’re seeing huge success with more focused events like the one we staged with Sue and Megan at the NWSL Championship in Kansas City recently, Kara’s interview last week of Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, which was followed by an amazing dinner with women executives at the Whitney Museum, or Eater Under Wraps, an upcoming holiday market and cocktail lounge in Brooklyn.

We’re also bringing people together at larger events like CES, Cannes, and SXSW. Last year at SXSW was an “Avengers” moment — we programmed an official podcast stage for the festival and it was the first time we brought some of our most high profile talent to one stage. They connected with each other and their superfans and did crossover episodes to bring their audience something special. That energy was amplified well beyond the stage with our sponsors who came along in podcast episodes distributed throughout our network and the social content that came from the event. This March our presence there will be even bigger.

What's been your toughest challenge this year at Vox Media? And what would you say has been the most pleasant surprise?

Even with an emphasis on serving audiences and generating revenues directly, since most content is consumed on a phone, we’re subject to changes on the platforms that are most dominant there. There’s limited predictability about how our work will be presented and monetized across these platforms. I’m referring not only to the dominant social media and search/A.I. products, but also how browsers deal with cookies or how email apps deliver newsletters, etc.

At the same time, it has been encouraging to see how consumers are embracing new forms of online social community this year. The dramatic growth of Bluesky and Threads is really interesting and shows that audiences are hungry for competition with new, more open, interoperable and focused systems of online interaction. Many of our brands like SB Nation, The Verge, The Dodo, and Polygon are as much about the strength of their communities as they are about the amazing content they produce. I look forward to seeing what is possible by embracing new technologies to make our communities more robust and engaging.

Status Scoop | A Gold-en Hire: Matea Gold is leaving The Washington Post for The New York Times, people familiar with the matter told me Sunday. The veteran Postie — currently the managing editor of national, local, and investigative divisions — had been in the running to be the newspaper’s next top editor. But as the search process enters its final stages, it had become clear Gold would not be tapped for the role. Now she’ll head to The NYT to serve as deputy to Dick Stevenson, who was promoted last month to Washington bureau chief. It’s not clear what Gold’s exact title will be, but before being elevated, Stevenson’s job was Washington editor. An announcement is expected from The NYT as soon as Monday, I’m told. Spokespeople for The WaPo and The NYT did not respond to requests for comment.

🔍️ Zooming in: Gold leaving The WaPo for The NYT will raise a slew of questions. It will be particularly interesting to see whether Gold, who is well-liked at The WaPo, will bring over any of her current colleagues over the next few months. Could someone like Josh Dawsey head to The NYT next? Time will tell, but Posties are looking for jobs, given the low morale inside the newsroom and discontent for publisher Will Lewis and owner Jeff Bezos. Of course, a talent exodus would further weaken the already weak newspaper, making it more difficult for the next top editor to revitalize.