Type of site | Technology News Science, Entertainment |
---|---|
Headquarters | 85 Broad Street New York City, NY 10004 U.S. |
Owner | Vox Media [1] |
Created by | |
Editor | Nilay Patel [3] |
URL | theverge.com |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | November 1, 2011 [4] |
Current status | Online |
OCLC number | 867048487 |
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. [3] [5]
The website was launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media's proprietary multimedia publishing platform Chorus. [6] [7] In 2014, Nilay Patel was named editor-in-chief and Dieter Bohn executive editor; Helen Havlak was named editorial director in 2017. [8] [9] 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. [10] [11]
Between March and April 2011, up to nine of Engadget 's writers, editors, and product developers, including editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, left AOL, the company behind that website, to start a new gadget site. [12] [13] [14] The other departing editors included managing editor Nilay Patel and staffers Paul Miller, Ross Miller, Joanna Stern, Chris Ziegler, as well as product developers Justin Glow and Dan Chilton. [12] [15] [16] 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. [15] [17] Topolsky lauded SB Nation's 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. [15] [16] SB Nation's Jim Bankoff saw an overlap in the demographics of the two sites and an opportunity to expand SB Nation's model. [15] Bankoff previously worked at AOL in 2005, where he led their Engadget acquisition. [18] Other news outlets viewed the partnership as positive for both SB Nation and Topolsky's staff, and negative for AOL's outlook. [19] [20] [21] [22]
Bankoff, chairman and CEO 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. [23] Development of Vox Media's content management system (CMS), Chorus, was led by Trei Brundrett, who later became the chief operating officer for the company. [24]
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. [15] [25] By August 2011, the site had reached 1 million unique visitors and 3.4 million page views. [25] By October 2011, the site had 3 million unique views per month and 10 million total page views. [2] Time listed the site in its Best Blogs of 2011, [25] calling the prototype site "exemplary". [26] The site closed upon The Verge's launch on November 1, 2011.[ citation needed ]
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. [27] By 2022, this section had been retitled simply "Buying Guide". [28]
The Verge launched November 1, 2011, [4] along with an announcement of a new parent company: Vox Media. [2] According to the company, the site launched with 4 million unique visitors and 20 million pageviews. [29] At the time of Topolsky's departure, Engadget had 14 million unique visitors. [12] [21] Vox Media overall doubled its unique visitors to about 15 million during the last half of 2012. [29] The Verge had 12 former Engadget staffers working with Topolsky at the time of launch. [2] It hired Tom Warren, former Neowin editor-in-chief and WinRumors blogger, as their new United Kingdom based senior editor. [30] In 2013, The Verge launched a new science section, Verge Science, with former Wired editor Katie Drummond leading the effort. [31] Patel replaced Topolsky as editor-in-chief in mid-2014. [32] Journalist Walt Mossberg joined The Verge's editing team after Vox Media acquired Recode in 2015. [3] By 2016, the website's advertising had shifted from display advertisements, matched with articles' contents, to partnerships and advertisements adjusted to the user. [33]
Vox Media revamped The Verge's visual design for its fifth anniversary in November 2016. [34] Its logo featured a modified Penrose triangle, an impossible object. [35] On November 1, The Verge launched version 3.0 of its news platform, offering a redesigned website along with the new logo. [36]
In September 2016, The Verge fired deputy editor Chris Ziegler after it learned that he had been working for Apple since July. [37] Helen Havlak was promoted to editorial director in mid-2017. [38] In 2017, The Verge launched "Guidebook" to host technology product reviews. [39] In May 2018, Verge Science launched a YouTube channel, 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. [40] As of August 2023, the channel has over 100 million views and 1.15 million subscribers.
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. [41]
The Verge rebranded and redesigned its website in September 2022 with a sharper, more simplistic logo, more colorful visual design, and new typefaces. 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. [42]
The Verge broadcasts a live weekly podcast, The Vergecast. The inaugural episode was November 4, 2011. It included a video stream of the hosts. [43] A second weekly podcast was introduced on November 8, 2011. Unlike The Vergecast, The Verge Mobile Show was primarily focused on mobile phones. [44] [45] The Verge also launched the weekly podcast Ctrl-Walt-Delete, hosted by Walt Mossberg, in September 2015. [46] The Verge'sWhat's Tech podcast was named among iTunes's best of 2015. [47] The podcast Why'd You Push That Button?, launched in 2017 and co-hosted by Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany, [48] received a Podcast Award in the "This Week in Tech Technology Category" in 2018. [49] [50]
Editor-in-chief Nilay Patel hosts a weekly interview podcast called Decoder. [51] On February 8th, 2024, Patel announced Decoder would now do two episodes per week. [52]
On August 6, 2011, in an interview with the firm Edelman, The Verge co-founder Marty Moe 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. [53] 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, not on television. 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. [54] On May 24, 2013, it was announced that the show would return under a new weekly format, alongside a new logo and theme tune. [55]
On May 8, 2013, editor-in-chief Topolsky announced Verge Video, a website that contains the video backlog from The Verge. [56]
Circuit Breaker, a gadget blog, launched in 2016, [57] has amassed nearly one million Facebook followers and debuted a live show on Twitter in October 2017. The blog's videos average more than 465,000 views, and Jake Kastrenakes serves as editor-in-chief, as of 2017. [58] Also in 2016, USA Network and The Verge partnered on Mr. Robot Digital After Show, a digital aftershow for the television series Mr. Robot . [59] In December, Twitter and Vox Media announced a live streaming partnership for The Verge's programs covering the Consumer Electronics Show. [60]
The series Next Level, hosted and produced by Lauren Goode, debuted in 2017 and was recognized in the "Technology" category at the 47th annual San Francisco / Northern California Emmy Awards (2018). [61] [62] In August 2017, The Verge launched the web series Space Craft, hosted by science reporter Loren Grush. [63]
In 2022, The Verge produced the show The Future Of for Netflix. [64]
In September 2018, The Verge published the article "How to Build a Custom PC for Editing, Gaming or Coding" with a companion YouTube video entitled "How we Built a $2000 Custom Gaming PC". The video was criticized for containing errors on almost every step presented by its host, Stefan Etienne, [65] such as applying a liberal amount of thermal paste onto the processor as opposed to a small amount. [66] An online harassment campaign against Etienne ensued. [66]
In February 2019, lawyers from The Verge's 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. [65] [67] 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. [68] [69] Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica 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." [65]
Nearly three years after the erroneous build, PC builder and YouTuber Linus Sebastian collaborated with Etienne in a video entitled "Fixing the Verge PC build", to rectify the mistakes thereof. In it, Etienne admitted not being an experienced builder at the time (having built only four computers at that point, with The Verge build being his first on camera), and revealed that before the video went live, The Verge was unwilling to hear from him to address what he saw were editing issues, insisting that the video be uploaded regardless. [66]
Engadget is a technology news, reviews and analysis website offering daily coverage of gadgets, consumer electronics, video games, gaming hardware, apps, social media, streaming, AI, space, robotics, electric vehicles and other potentially consumer-facing technology. The site's content includes short-form news posts, reported features, news analysis, product reviews, buying guides, two weekly video shows, The Engadget Podcast, The Morning After newsletter and a weekly deals newsletter. It has been operated by Yahoo! Inc. since September 2021.
Joystiq was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft in particular.
Joshua Ryan Topolsky 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, and a co-creator of its parent company Vox Media. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of Engadget.
Nilay Patel is an American editor and blogger who has been editor-in-chief of technology news website The Verge since 2014.
James Philip Bankoff 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.
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.
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.
Polygon is an American entertainment website by Vox Media covering video games, movies, television, and other popular culture. 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 video games and long-form magazine-style feature articles.
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store or Play Store and formerly known as Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating system and its derivatives, as well as ChromeOS, allowing users to browse and download applications developed with the Android software development kit and published through Google. Google Play has also served as a digital media store, offering games, music, books, movies, and television programs. Content that has been purchased on Google Play Movies & TV and Google Play Books can be accessed on a web browser and through the Android and iOS apps.
Messenger, also known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the client application of Messenger is currently available on iOS and Android mobile platforms, Windows and macOS desktop platforms, through the Messenger.com web application, and on the standalone Facebook Portal hardware.
The iPad Mini is a line of small tablet computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a sub-series of the iPad line of tablets, with screen sizes of 7.9 inches and 8.3 inches. The first-generation iPad Mini was announced on October 23, 2012, and was released on November 2, 2012, in nearly all of Apple's markets. It featured similar internal specifications to the iPad 2, including its display resolution.
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.
Google Play Music was a music and podcast streaming service and an online music locker operated by Google as part of its Google Play line of services. The service was announced on May 10, 2011; after a six-month, invitation-only beta period, it was publicly launched on November 16, 2011, and shut down in December 2020.
A microconsole is a home video game console that is typically powered by low-cost computing hardware, making the console lower-priced compared to other home consoles on the market. The majority of microconsoles, with a few exceptions such as the PlayStation TV and OnLive Game System, are Android-based digital media players that are bundled with gamepads and marketed as gaming devices. Such microconsoles can be connected to the television to play video games downloaded from an application store such as Google Play.
The iPad Mini is the first generation, known retrospectively as the iPad Mini 1, of the mini tablet computer designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It was announced on October 23, 2012, as the fourth major product in the iPad line and the first of the iPad Mini line. It features a reduced screen size of 7.9 inches (20 cm), compared to the 9.7-inch (25 cm) display on standard iPads at that time. Its internal specifications resemble that of the iPad 2, including its display resolution.
Recode 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 they had previously co-founded, All Things Digital. Vox Media acquired Recode in May 2015 and, in May 2019, the Recode website was integrated into Vox. On March 6th, 2023, Vox media announced that in order to make the various Vox sub brands less confusing to its readers, it is retiring Recode brand but it will continue its mission to explain complex issues around technology to its readers under the unified Vox brand.
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.
The Outline was an online publication focused on "power, culture, and the future." It was founded independently by Joshua Topolsky in 2016 and later became a subsidiary of Bustle.
Joanna Stern is an American technology journalist, best known for her videos and columns at The Wall Street Journal and technology news websites Engadget and The Verge. She became a personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal in 2014, as part of the team that replaced Walt Mossberg.
Ziegler had actively worked on stories throughout July while also employed by Apple. After he fell silent in August, The Verge tried to get in touch with him since they were 'in the dark and concerned for Chris'.