Jim Bankoff

Last updated

Jim Bankoff
Jim Bankoff, Vox Media, July 2018.jpg
Bankoff in July 2018
Born
James Philip Bankoff

(1969-12-23) December 23, 1969 (age 54)
CitizenshipAmerican
Education
Occupation(s) Chairman and CEO of Vox Media
Employer Vox Media
Spouse
Diane Elson
​
(m. 2003)​
Parents
  • Marvin Bankoff (father)
  • Adrienne Bankoff (mother)

James Philip Bankoff (born December 23, 1969) is an American media executive who is the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Vox Media. He previously worked for AOL and joined Vox Media's predecessor, SB Nation , in 2009.

Contents

Early life and education

Bankoff was born to Marvin and Adrienne Bankoff on December 23, 1969, and raised in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. [1] [2] [3] His father owned a jewelry business and his mother worked as an editor. [3] Bankoff developed an interest in media at an early age. [4] [5] He obtained a bachelor's degree in international studies from Emory University. [2] During his senior year, he interned at CNN. [6] Bankoff earned his Master of Business Administration degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. [7]

Career

Early career and AOL

Bankoff initially worked as a production assistant for the WETA-TV series Washington Week . [5] He also worked at Ruder Finn's Global Public Affairs group, where he became an account supervisor in 1991. [8] [9] After graduating from Wharton, he declined job offers from The New York Times , The Walt Disney Company, and a record company to join AOL in 1995. [5] [6] In various roles, he worked on projects including AIM, [10] AOL.com, [11] AOL Music, FanHouse, [4] MapQuest, Moviefone, and Netscape. [3] [7] He focused on the company's digital content business, [12] helped the company acquire Engadget , [3] [7] [13] and was involved in the creation of TMZ. [14] [15]

Bankoff became director of business development for AOL Greenhouse in 1996. [9] He was named vice-president of strategy and operations for the AOL brand in 1998, [9] and oversaw business strategy, category management, and content acquisition. He also directed AOL Music and AOL Plus. [8] Following the merger of AOL and Netscape, Bankoff became president of Netscape in 2001. [16] He was responsible for business operations and the growth of Netscape.com and Netbusiness. [8] [17] He then served as president of AOL Web Properties, [18] [19] managing AIM, CompuServe, ICQ, MapQuest, Moviefone, and Netscape. [9] [20]

Bankoff held the role of executive vice-president of programming and products from 2002. [9] [12] [21] Bankoff left AOL in late 2006, [3] [7] working as a consultant for The Huffington Post and SB Nation , starting in 2008. [12]

SB Nation and Vox Media

As an angel investor for SB Nation, Bankoff led the company's first round of financing. He became its chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) in January 2009. [7] [12] He expanded SB Nation's network and number of writers. [22] In November 2011, Bankoff co-founded Vox Media as the parent company for SB Nation and The Verge . [23] As Vox Media's chairman and CEO, Bankoff pursued growing the company through acquisitions. [13] He oversees the company's media brands. [2] [24]

Accolades

In 2015, Bankoff was included in Washingtonian 's list of the "100 Top Tech Leaders" in Washington, D.C., [25] and ranked number 18 on Business Insider 's "Silicon Alley 100" list of the "coolest, most inspiring people in the New York tech industry". [26] He was also included in The Hollywood Reporter 's list of "The 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media" in 2016. [27] Bankoff ranked number 67 on Mediaite's list of the most influential figures in media in 2017. [28]

Personal life

Bankoff and Diane Elson, who founded the rug design company Elson&Company in 1998, married on April 26, 2003. [1] Bankoff is a fan of the New York Yankees. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AOL</span> American internet portal

AOL is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc.

Netscape Communications Corporation was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California, and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was once dominant but lost to Internet Explorer and other competitors in the so-called first browser war, with its market share falling from more than 90 percent in the mid-1990s to less than one percent in 2006. An early Netscape employee, Brendan Eich, created the JavaScript programming language, the most widely used language for client-side scripting of web pages. A founding engineer of Netscape, Lou Montulli, created HTTP cookies. The company also developed SSL which was used for securing online communications before its successor TLS took over.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Case</span> Businessman and former CEO of AOL

Stephen McConnell Case is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). Case joined AOL's predecessor company, Quantum Computer Services, as a marketing vice-president in 1985, became CEO of the company in 1991, and, at the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000, orchestrated with Gerald M. Levin the merger that created AOL Time Warner, described as "the biggest train wreck in the history of corporate America."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Andreessen</span> American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer (born 1971)

Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard. Andreessen is also a co-founder of Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites and an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net-worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Eich</span> American computer scientist and technology executive

Brendan Eich is an American computer programmer and technology executive. He created the JavaScript programming language and co-founded the Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla Corporation. He served as the Mozilla Corporation's chief technical officer before he was appointed chief executive officer, but resigned shortly after his appointment due to pressure over his firm opposition to same-sex marriage. He subsequently became the CEO of Brave Software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kara Swisher</span> American technology business journalist

Kara Anne Swisher is an American journalist. She has covered the business of the internet since 1994. As of 2023, Swisher was a contributing editor at New York Magazine, the host of the podcast On with Kara Swisher, and the co-host of the podcast Pivot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Calacanis</span> American businessman

Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Riccitiello</span> American business executive (born 1957/1958)

John Riccitiello is an American business executive. Previously, he was chief executive officer, chief operating officer and president of Unity Technologies, Electronic Arts, and co-founded private equity firm Elevation Partners in 2004. Riccitiello has sat on several company boards, including those of the Entertainment Software Association, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the Haas School of Business and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox was founded in 2007 by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a startup company, with initial funding from seed accelerator Y Combinator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patch Media</span> U.S. local news website, launched 2007

Patch Media, also known as Patch, operates Patch.com, an American local news and information platform, based in Manhattan. It is primarily owned by Hale Global. Patch is operated by Planck, LLC, doing business as Patch Media.

The Verge is an American technology news website headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.

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 SB Nation and The Verge. Bankoff had been the CEO for SB Nation since 2009.

<i>SB Nation</i> American sports blogging website

SB Nation is a sports blogging network owned by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Tyler Bleszinski, Markos Moulitsas, and Jerome Armstrong in 2003. The blog from which the network formed was started by Bleszinski as Athletics Nation in 2003, and focused solely on the Oakland Athletics. It has since expanded to cover sports franchises on a national scale, including all Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, and National Football League teams, as well as college teams, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling, totaling over 300 community sites. In 2011, the network expanded into technology content with The Verge, leading to the parent company Sports Blogs Inc. being rebranded as Vox Media. SB Nation operates from Vox Media's offices in New York City and Washington, D.C.

<i>Polygon</i> (website) Video game website

Polygon is an American entertainment website covering video games and popular culture by Vox Media. At its October 2012 launch as Vox Media's third property, Polygon sought to distinguish itself by focusing on the stories of the people behind games and long-form magazine-style feature articles.

Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called "My Eyes Only". It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.

<i>Vox</i> (website) American news website

Vox is an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on Netflix. Vox has been described as left-leaning and progressive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marty Moe</span>

Martin Troen Moe 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 Treasury. He later worked for AOL before joining SportsBlogs Inc, which rebranded as Vox Media in 2011. He is credited as a co-founder of the technology news website The Verge. He was the site's publisher, then Vox Media's chief content officer, before being promoted to the role of president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present)</span> American technology company

Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational technology company that focuses on media and online business. It is the second and current incarnation of the company, after Verizon Communications acquired the core assets of its predecessor and merged them with AOL in 2017. The resulting subsidiary entity was briefly called Oath Inc. In December 2018, Verizon announced it would write down the combined value of its purchases of AOL and Yahoo! by $4.6 billion, roughly half; the company would be renamed Verizon Media the following month in January 2019.

Eater is a food website by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal in 2005, and originally focused on dining and nightlife in New York City. Eater launched a national site in 2009, and covered nearly 20 cities by 2012. Vox Media acquired Eater, along with two others comprising the Curbed Network, in late 2013. In 2017, Eater had around 25 local sites in the United States, Canada, and England. The site has been recognized twelve times by the James Beard Foundation Awards.

References

  1. 1 2 "Weddings/Celebrations; Diane Elson, James Bankoff". The New York Times . April 27, 2003. ISSN   0362-4331. OCLC   1645522. Archived from the original on February 26, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Martin, Rachel; Levine, Cecilia (December 23, 2016). "Happy Birthday to Upper Saddle River's Jim Bankoff". Northern Highlands Daily Voice. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Heath, Thomas (December 7, 2014). "As investments roll in, Vox Media's Bankoff tries to keep creativity alive". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. OCLC   2269358. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Solomon, Brian (December 6, 2012). "Meet Vox Media: The Digital Upstart That Wants to Be Conde Nast 2.0". Forbes . ISSN   0015-6914. Archived from the original on December 9, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Farhi, Paul (April 7, 2014). "Vox Media ventures into general news and news analysis with Vox.com". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 13, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  6. 1 2 Krueger, Alyson (June 23, 2015). "Bankoff's Time". The Pennsylvania Gazette. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Bond, Shannon (October 22, 2017). "Jim Bankoff, Vox Media CEO, on moving into TV". Financial Times . ISSN   0307-1766. Archived from the original on September 21, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 Barnes, Cecily (January 18, 2001). "Bankoff named Netscape president". ZDNet . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Garrity, Brian (November 6, 2004). "AOL Is Increasingly Seen as a Launch Pad for Original Content". Billboard . Vol. 116, no. 45. ISSN   0006-2510 . Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  10. ↑ Sloane, Garett (October 6, 2017). "Twitter Eulogizes AIM as App Sounds Death Knell". Advertising Age . Archived from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Jim Bankoff's Vox Media nears $40 million funding target". Reuters. October 15, 2013. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Lincoln, Kevin (January 9, 2012). "The Raid on AOL: How Vox Pillaged Engadget and Founded an Empire". Business Insider . Axel Springer SE. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  13. 1 2 "PubTech Connect: Meet Internet Visionary Jim Bankoff, CEO of Vox Media and Keynote Speaker". Publishers Weekly . February 8, 2017. ISSN   0000-0019. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  14. ↑ Eldon, Eric (April 25, 2013). "Vox Media's Jim Bankoff to Talk the Business of High-Quality Media at Disrupt NY". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  15. ↑ Shontell, Alyson (March 13, 2014). "VOX CEO: Here's How We're Able To Get Tons Of Traffic Without Gaming Facebook". Business Insider . Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
  16. ↑ Pain, Steve (June 12, 2001). "E-Business: Netscape Media Hub Makeover". Birmingham Post . Trinity Mirror. ISSN   0963-7915. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Housing Starts Fall for Year". The Washington Post. January 19, 2001. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  18. ↑ Klein, Alec (August 22, 2001). "Netscape's New Mission; Web Pioneer Promotes Parent AOL Time Warner's Products". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  19. ↑ Pain, Steve (August 23, 2001). "AOL to axe 1,2000 after Internet ad slowdown". Birmingham Post. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  20. ↑ Klein, Alec; Joyce, Amy (August 22, 2001). "AOL to Lay Off 1,700 More Workers; About 425 Jobs in Va. Affected; Internet Unit To Trim Workforce 10%". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  21. ↑ Steigrad, Alexandra (October 17, 2015). "Media People: Vox Media's Jim Bankoff". Women's Wear Daily . ISSN   0043-7581. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  22. ↑ Kramer, Staci D. (April 4, 2011). "SB Nation Wins Tech Publishing Fantasy Draft; Signs Engadget Team". Gigaom . Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  23. ↑ "Consumer groups fight database lawsuit". The Washington Post. November 1, 2011. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  24. ↑ Braiker, Brian (September 30, 2017). "Introducing Ad Lib, a New Podcast from Ad Age. First Up: Vox Media's Jim Bankoff". Advertising Age. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2018.
  25. ↑ Gaynor, Michael J. (May 4, 2015). "Washington's 100 Top Tech Leaders". Washingtonian . ISSN   0043-0897. Archived from the original on December 2, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  26. ↑ Stanger, Melissa; Martin, Emmie; Kosoff, Maya (October 8, 2015). "Silicon Alley 100: 1–100". Business Insider. Archived from the original on April 19, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  27. ↑ "The 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media". The Hollywood Reporter. April 6, 2016. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  28. ↑ "Most Influential in Media 2017". Mediaite . December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on March 21, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.