 | |
Type of site | Personal finance |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | Dotdash Meredith |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | No registration necessary |
| Launched | September 6, 2016 |
| Current status | Active |
The Balance is an American website focused on simplifying personal finance topics and news. Headquartered in New York City, The Balance is part of the Dotdash Meredith family of websites.
The Balance currently reaches 19 million unique viewers in the US each month. [1]
The Balance grew out of the financial content written for the website About.com, which was launched in 1996. [2] The site was re-launched as a stand-alone personal finance vertical with updated content from About.com, as well as new content, on September 6, 2016. [3] [4]
The site was the second of five vertical sites launched from the content that had comprised About.com by Dotdash, the rebranded About.com entity. [5]
While Dotdash launched all of its brands with a graphics-heavy design scheme, The Balance's is more restrained to "reflect the weightiness of the topic", according to Dotdash CEO Neil Vogel. [5]
At launch, The Balance featured more than 34,000 pieces of content written by 70 contributors. [6]
The site is written with a tone designed to appeal to millennials and younger generations, though it covers financial topics that are relevant to readers of all ages. [6] It was created to serve what CEO Neil Vogel referred to as an underserved market: the average consumer. The Balance seeks to explain difficult personal finance topics in simple terms. As of its launch, the readership of The Balance was 60% women and approximately 50% millennials. [7]
The site won the 2019 Communicator Award of Excellence for the Best Financial Services Site. [8] Its general manager, Lauren Silbert, was named a winner of the 2019 Top Women in Media by Folio magazine and a 2020 HERo Future Female Leader by Yahoo! Finance. [9] [10]
The Balance had a readership of 6.5 million unique users when it launched in 2016, which grew to over 17 million by October 2017. [11] As of August 2020, The Balance was ranked #2 of financial news sites and reached 19 million unique US viewers. [1]
The Balance is supported through display and performance-based advertising. [12] [13] At the time of its launch, Dotdash reduced the number of ads on its sites, including The Balance, by 35%, betting that "fewer, better ads will attract a larger audience." [14]
Dotdash Meredith is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and education. It operates brands including Verywell, Investopedia, People, The Balance, Byrdie, MyDomaine, Brides, The Spruce, Simply Recipes, Serious Eats, Liquor.com, Lifewire, TripSavvy, TreeHugger, and ThoughtCo. In August 2012, About.com became a property of IAC, owner of Ask.com and numerous other online brands, and its revenue is generated by advertising. In addition to its Manhattan headquarters, Dotdash Meredith maintains offices elsewhere in the New York metropolitan area, as well as in Des Moines, Iowa, and Birmingham, Alabama.
Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour.
Forbes is an American business magazine founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917 and owned by Hong Kong-based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairperson and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Federle. It is based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Competitors in the national business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek.
IAC Inc. is an American holding company that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet. The company is incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in New York City. Joey Levin, who previously led the company's search and applications segment, has served as chief executive officer since June 2015.
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; owned by Nine Entertainment and has been published continuously since its founding in 1951. The AFR, along with the rest of Fairfax Media, was sold to Nine Entertainment for more than A$2.3 billion. The AFR is published in tabloid format six times a week, whilst providing 24/7 online coverage through its website. In November 2019, the AFR reached 2.647 million Australians through both print and digital mediums (Mumbrella).
Complex Networks is an American media and entertainment company for youth culture, based in New York City. It was founded as a bi-monthly magazine, Complex, by fashion designer Marc (Ecko) Milecofsky. Complex Networks reports on popular and emerging trends in style, sneakers, food, music, sports and pop culture. Complex Networks reached over 90 million unique users per month in 2013 across its owned and operated and partner sites, socials and YouTube channels. The print magazine ceased publication with the December 2016/January 2017 issue. Complex currently has 6.02 million subscribers and 1.8 billion total views on YouTube. As of 2019, the company's yearly revenue was estimated to be US$200 million, 15% of which came from commerce.
Investopedia is a financial media website headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1999, Investopedia provides investment dictionaries, advice, reviews, ratings, and comparisons of financial products, such as securities accounts. It is part of the Dotdash Meredith family of brands owned by IAC.
Business Insider is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in Business Insider's parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publishing house Axel Springer. It operates several international editions, including one in the United Kingdom.
Bleacher Report is a website that focuses on sport and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London.
Quartz is an American English language news website owned by G/O Media. Focused on international business news, it was founded in 2012 by Atlantic Media in New York City as a "digitally native news outlet for business people in the new global economy". It initially did not have a paywall, then did, then dropped it.
Purch Group, Inc. was a New York City-based digital media company. Originally established in 2003 as TechMedia Network, Inc., it was positioned as a "portfolio of brands and products focused on purchasing decisions"—consisting primarily of websites focusing on reviews of consumer electronics, positioned to marketers as outlets to "directly engage with buyers in the right place, at the right time".
StockTwits is a social media platform designed for sharing ideas between investors, traders, and entrepreneurs. The company was co-founded by Howard Lindzon and Soren Macbeth in 2009. The company received the first Shorty Award in the 2008 finance category. Time magazine listed the company as one of its 2010 "50 best websites." The company was also named one of the "top 10 most innovative companies in finance" in 2012 by FastCompany. In June 2013, StockTwits had 230,000 active members. By mid-2019, that figure had increased to 2 million, and the company premiered free online trading via an iOS app. In 2022, the Stocktwits platform added crypto and equities trading to the platform.
Spanfeller Media Group (SMG), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. It was founded in 2010 by Jim Spanfeller, after leading the digital strategy at Forbes.com. Spanfeller Media Group operates two media sites as subject-specific digital destinations, The Daily Meal, dedicated to food and drink, and The Active Times, centered on outdoor sports and an active lifestyle.
Atlas Obscura is an American-based online magazine and travel company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via user-generated content. The articles on the website cover a number of topics including history, science, food, and obscure places.
Verywell is a website providing health and wellness information by health professionals. It was launched on 26 April 2016 as a media property of About.com and its first standalone brand.
Lifewire is a technology information and advice website. The website's owner is Dotdash Meredith, originally About.com, which launched Lifewire in 2016 as one of its spin-off vertical sites.
Fatherly is a digital lifestyle brand that provides news, expert advice, product recommendations and other resources for parents. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in New York City.
Insider Inc. is an American online media company known for publishing Business Insider and other media websites. It is a subsidiary of the German publisher Axel Springer SE, the largest in Europe.
Grant Sabatier is an American author, podcaster, and entrepreneur.
Investing.com is a financial platform and news website; one of the top three global financial websites in the world. It offers market quotes, information about stocks, futures, options, analysis, commodities, and an economic calendar.
