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Vox Media is acquiring tech news website Re/code.
Financial terms of the all-stock deal were not disclosed, but the sale of Re/code’s parent company, Revere Digital, is expected to boost traffic to the niche media upstart, which journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg launched in early 2014 after parting ways with The Wall Street Journal.
Swisher and Mossberg are expected to stay at the San Francisco-based website, according to The New York Times, which first reported news of the transaction. Re/code, which currently has 44 full-time staffers, will continue to publish at Recode.net and host its annual conference series. The website will share Vox’s production, marketing, communication, advertising and distribution resources and will eventually transition to Vox publishing platform Chorus.
“Vox Media has built some of the leading media brands of the digital generation by empowering the most talented voices — from our beginnings as a network of sports bloggers at SB Nation, through the launches of The Verge, Polygon and Vox.com, as well as our successful integration of Eater, Curbed and Racked,” said Vox CEO Jim Bankoff. “Kara, Walt, and the Re/code team embody this same exceptional digital-first approach to journalism, continuing to set the highest bar for tech business coverage.”
Re/code has its roots in tech blog AllThingsD, which tech reviewer Mossberg and tech columnist Swisher launched in 2007 as part of The Wall Street Journal‘s network. After splitting with WSJ and parent company Dow Jones in late 2013, they launched Re/code and the Code Conference series.
But Swisher conceded to NYT that there were challenges to running a standalone company, including drawing a large audience. About 1.5 million people visit Re/code each month, according to comScore. “Everybody is bigger than us,” she said. “It’s not a secret that being a smaller fish is really hard.”
The addition of Re/code further bolster’s Vox’s digital media portfolio, which began with sports-centric SBNation and has since expanded to include tech site The Verge and news site Vox.com. Vox also acquired the Curbed Network — which includes Eater, Racked and Curbed — in 2013.
“This combination will give us access to the new tools and talent we need and want to make Re/code stronger and better,” said Swisher. Added Mossberg: “This is by far the best fit for the future of Re/code and the Code conferences.”
The news comes on the first day of the annual Code Conference, which is currently taking place in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
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