Publisher
Vox Media
Melissa Bell is the co-founder and publisher of Vox, the industry-changing explanatory news network launched in 2014 to bring context and clarity to the news. Under her leadership, Vox has become an award-winning multi-platform newsroom with 20 million people visiting the website each month, over 11 million subscribers to its YouTube channel, and an audio slate that includes the flagship daily news show Today Explained, one of the nation’s top 20 podcasts, as well as Unexplainable, The Weeds, The Gray Area, and more. Recently, Today, Explained made its debut on public radio, where it reaches 1 million weekly listeners in addition to its podcast audience.
Bell has held a number of roles across Vox Media as it has grown. In 2016, she served as Vox Media’s publisher, overseeing the company’s editorial brands and playing a critical role in shepherding Vox Media’s merger with New York Magazine, along with their premium brands of Vulture, The Cut, Intelligencer, Grub Street, and The Strategist. The merger brought together 13 distinct newsrooms that collectively have earned 50+ National Magazine Awards, 20 James Beard Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and a News & Documentary Emmy. She also helped with the acquisition of Group Nine’s portfolio of brands, including The Dodo, NowThis, and Thrillist. During her tenure, the company launched its premium brand content design studio, The Explainer Studio, its top-ten podcast network Vox Media Podcast Network, and its television studio, Vox Media Studios, fueled by Vox’s successful Netflix Show “Explained,” and HBO’s “Level Playing Field.” In 2021, she returned her focus to the site she co-founded to launch Vox into its next chapter with a focus on deepening the brand’s trademark explanatory journalism across platforms and diversifying its revenue streams in the face of a rapidly changing media landscape.
Table Talks: How To Keep Evolving When Our Industry Never Stops Changing
Friday, August 25, 2023
4:00pm – 5:00pm EDT