James Murdoch buys Vox Media assets, SB Nation and other sites spun off into new company

James Murdoch, the son of media titan Rupert Murdoch, has completed his purchase of about half of Vox Media’s assets.

Murdoch’s Lupa Systems investment company has bought Vox’s site, Vox Media’s podcast network, and New York magazine, which, perhaps not so coincidentally, once belonged to his father.

According to the New York Times, the deal was north of $300 million and is expected to close in the coming weeks.

At the height of the digital media boom in 2015, Vox Media’s valuation peaked at $1 billion.

It had been originally reported in early May that Murdoch, the younger brother of Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, was in talks to make the acquisition.

Once the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, Murdoch has carved out a unique path for himself separate from his family’s media interests. In his 2020 resignation letter from the News Corp board, he wrote that he was leaving “due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions,” criticizing the “ongoing denial of the role of climate change.”

Since leaving News Corp in 2020, James and his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, have pursued several trendy media properties through Lupa, including Tribeca Enterprises (which runs the Tribeca Film Festival) and MCH Group, the parent company of Art Basel. Kathyrn has also invested in the Bulwark.

In a letter to the company on Wednesday, Vox CEO Jim Bankoff told employees that Vox Media would split into two companies. A new media company under Lupa ownership, for which he would remain CEO and would carry the Vox Media name forward, and a separate independent company that would oversee Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation, The Dodo, and The Verge. Current Vox CRO Ryan Pauley will lead that yet-to-be-named company post-closing.

“Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation, The Dodo, and The Verge are each in a strong place as distinct brands, and we have no plans to separate them,” wrote Bankoff. “Each will continue under its current leadership, and Ryan will keep working closely with those leaders to deliver on every brand’s individual strategy. We have made real progress building a brand-led business, including a commercial structure designed to support each brand’s unique opportunity.”

SB Nation’s future has long been in limbo amid Vox’s future plans and a seemingly never-ending cycle of talent drain, layoffs, and site departures. In April, AdWeek’s Mark Stenberg wrote that SB Nation is “at the top of the Vox Media hierarchy,” due to its relatively low costs and significant revenue, reporting that SB Nation still brings in between $50 and 100 million annually and is profitable.

The sale is a lifeline for Vox’s most prominent assets, but it stands to reason that the remaining sites and the new company formed around them will continue to have very murky futures. Along with SB Nation, the Eater brand has been contracting for several years, and The Verge, while remaining relevant in tech and AI reporting, has seen its traffic plummet.