The Verge is an American technology news and media website, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City, and operated by Vox Media. It publishes a variety of content including news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.

When was The Verge officially launched?

The Verge was officially launched on November 1, 2011, and it utilizes Vox Media's proprietary multimedia publishing platform known as Chorus. This platform is a content management system (CMS) designed to manage and deliver digital content.

Who are the primary creators of The Verge?

The Verge was created by Joshua Topolsky, Jim Bankoff, and Marty Moe. These individuals were instrumental in establishing the website and its foundational principles.

Who holds the position of editor-in-chief at The Verge?

Nilay Patel is the editor-in-chief of The Verge. He assumed this role in mid-2014, succeeding Joshua Topolsky.

What awards did The Verge receive in 2012?

In 2012, The Verge won five Webby Awards, which recognize excellence on the Internet. These awards included Best Writing (Editorial), Best Podcast for The Vergecast, Best Visual Design, Best Consumer Electronics Site, and Best Mobile News App.

What event led to the departure of key staff from Engadget and the subsequent formation of The Verge?

Between March and April 2011, up to nine writers, editors, and product developers, including editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky and managing editor Nilay Patel, left AOL, the company behind Engadget, to start a new gadget site. This mass departure set the stage for The Verge's creation.

With which company did Joshua Topolsky's team partner to launch their new site?

Joshua Topolsky announced in early April 2011 that their new site would be produced in partnership with the sports news website SB Nation. This collaboration was viewed positively by other news outlets for both SB Nation and Topolsky's staff.

What was Joshua Topolsky's rationale for partnering with SB Nation?

Topolsky lauded SB Nation's shared interest in the future of publishing, specifically highlighting their beliefs in independent journalism and the in-house development of their own content delivery tools. This alignment in vision was a key factor in the partnership.

What was the interim site called that hosted the Engadget podcast before The Verge's launch, and how was it recognized?

Before The Verge's official launch, an interim site called 'This Is My Next' hosted the Engadget podcast. By October 2011, this site had garnered 3 million unique views per month and 10 million total page views. Time magazine recognized its quality by listing it in its Best Blogs of 2011, describing the prototype site as 'exemplary'.

How was the name 'This Is My Next' later utilized by The Verge after its initial closure?

On June 11, 2014, The Verge repurposed the name by launching a new section called 'This Is My Next,' edited by former editor David Pierce. This section served as a buyer's guide for consumer electronics, and by 2022, it was retitled 'Buying Guide'.

What was The Verge's initial audience performance and staffing at its launch?

At its launch on November 1, 2011, The Verge reported an impressive initial audience of 4 million unique visitors and 20 million pageviews. The team at launch included 12 former Engadget staffers working alongside Joshua Topolsky.

When did The Verge launch its science section, and who was appointed to lead it?

In 2013, The Verge expanded its content offerings by launching a new science section, 'Verge Science.' This initiative was led by Katie Drummond, a former editor at Wired magazine.

Which prominent journalist joined The Verge's editing team after Vox Media acquired Recode in 2015?

Journalist Walt Mossberg joined The Verge's editing team after Vox Media acquired the technology news site Recode in 2015. Mossberg is known for his influential technology product reviews.

How did The Verge's advertising strategy evolve by 2016?

By 2016, The Verge's advertising strategy shifted from traditional display advertisements, which were typically matched with article content, to a more personalized approach involving partnerships and advertisements adjusted to the individual user.

What significant changes occurred in The Verge's visual design and platform for its fifth anniversary in November 2016?

For its fifth anniversary in November 2016, Vox Media revamped The Verge's visual design. This included the launch of 'version 3.0' of its news platform, featuring a redesigned website and a new logo that incorporated a modified Penrose triangle, an optical illusion known as an impossible object.

Why was deputy editor Chris Ziegler fired from The Verge in September 2016?

Deputy editor Chris Ziegler was fired from The Verge in September 2016 after the company discovered he had been secretly working for Apple since July of that year, while simultaneously continuing to actively work on stories for The Verge.

What new section did The Verge introduce in 2017 specifically for technology product reviews?

In 2017, The Verge introduced a new section called 'Guidebook,' which was specifically designed to host technology product reviews, offering readers comprehensive buying advice.

What was the growth trajectory of the Verge Science YouTube channel by early 2019 and mid-2023?

The Verge Science YouTube channel, launched in May 2018, demonstrated significant growth. By January 2019, it had over 638,000 subscribers and 30 million views, with November 2018 alone accounting for over 5.3 million views. By August 2023, the channel had further expanded to over 100 million views and 1.15 million subscribers.

Who resigned as Executive Editor of The Verge in March 2022, and what was his next career move?

Dieter Bohn announced his resignation as Executive Editor of The Verge in March 2022. Following his departure, he moved to a new position at Google.

What were the key elements of The Verge's rebranding and website redesign in September 2022?

In September 2022, The Verge underwent a rebranding and website redesign, featuring a sharper, more simplistic logo, a more colorful visual design, and new typefaces. The new homepage format was designed to resemble a news feed, integrating external conversations from social media and reporting from other publications, with an aim to reduce aggregation reporting.

When did The Verge introduce a paywall for some of its content, and what does it offer?

In December 2024, The Verge began to implement a paywall for certain content, requiring a subscription service for access. This offering includes 'premium' reports, newsletters, and reviews, along with fewer advertisements and other exclusive features.

According to Nilay Patel, what was the primary motivation behind The Verge's move to a subscription model?

Nilay Patel stated that the primary motivation for moving to a subscription model was for the site to survive an increasingly difficult market for the rigorous, independent journalism they aimed to produce. This strategic shift was intended to secure the financial viability of their journalistic endeavors.

What are some of the podcasts produced by The Verge?

The Verge produces several podcasts, including the live weekly podcast The Vergecast, The Verge Mobile Show (which focuses on mobile phones), Ctrl-Walt-Delete (hosted by Walt Mossberg), What's Tech, Why'd You Push That Button?, and Decoder (hosted by editor-in-chief Nilay Patel).

Which of The Verge's podcasts received a Podcast Award in 2018?

The podcast 'Why'd You Push That Button?', which launched in 2017 and was co-hosted by Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany, received a Podcast Award in the 'This Week in Tech Technology Category' in 2018.

What change was made to the 'Decoder' podcast's schedule in February 2024?

On February 8, 2024, Nilay Patel announced that the 'Decoder' podcast, which he hosts, would increase its frequency to two episodes per week, providing more regular content to its listeners.

What was The Verge's web television series called, and what was its format?

The Verge's web television series was initially announced as 'The Verge Show' in August 2011, but was later named 'On The Verge.' This show was a technology news entertainment program, adopting a format similar to a late-night talk show, but broadcast exclusively over the Internet.

What is 'Circuit Breaker,' and what was its reach by 2017?

'Circuit Breaker' is a gadget blog launched by The Verge in 2016. By 2017, it had amassed nearly one million Facebook followers and debuted a live show on Twitter in October of that year. Its videos averaged over 465,000 views, and Jake Kastrenakes served as its editor-in-chief as of 2017.

What notable video content collaborations and series has The Verge produced?

The Verge has produced various notable video content, including a partnership with USA Network in 2016 for the 'Mr. Robot Digital After Show,' a live streaming collaboration with Twitter for Consumer Electronics Show programs in December 2016, the Emmy-recognized series 'Next Level' hosted by Lauren Goode, the web series 'Space Craft' hosted by Loren Grush, and the show 'The Future Of' for Netflix in 2022.

What was the subject of the controversial article and YouTube video published by The Verge in September 2018?

In September 2018, The Verge published an article titled 'How to Build a Custom PC for Editing, Gaming or Coding,' accompanied by a YouTube video titled 'How we Built a $2000 Custom Gaming PC.' This content later became the subject of significant controversy.

What was the primary criticism leveled against The Verge's PC build video?

The primary criticism against The Verge's PC build video was that it contained errors in almost every step presented by its host, Stefan Etienne. A notable example cited was the application of an unnecessary amount of thermal paste onto the processor, which is a common mistake for inexperienced builders.

What action did Vox Media's lawyers take in response to critical YouTube videos about The Verge's PC build guide, and what was the outcome?

In February 2019, lawyers from Vox Media, The Verge's parent company, filed DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices against YouTube videos that were critical of The Verge's PC build video, alleging copyright infringement. YouTube initially took down two of these videos and applied copyright 'strikes' to the channels involved (BitWit and ReviewTechUSA). However, YouTube later reinstated the videos and retracted the copyright 'strikes' after a request from Verge editor Nilay Patel.

How did Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica describe the PC build guide controversy?

Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica described the PC build guide controversy as an example of the Streisand effect, a phenomenon where an attempt to suppress information inadvertently draws more attention to it. He also noted that legal precedent suggests such critical videos generally fall within the bounds of copyright's fair use doctrine.

What did Stefan Etienne, the host of the controversial PC build video, later reveal about his experience and The Verge's handling of the video?

Nearly three years after the initial erroneous build, Stefan Etienne collaborated with PC builder and YouTuber Linus Sebastian in a video titled 'Fixing the Verge PC build.' In this video, Etienne admitted he was not an experienced builder at the time, having only built four computers, with The Verge's build being his first on camera. He also revealed that The Verge was unwilling to hear from him regarding editing issues and insisted the video be uploaded regardless of his concerns.

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Introduction

A Hub for Technology News

The Verge stands as a prominent American technology news and media website, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It operates under the umbrella of Vox Media, a major player in the digital media landscape. The platform is renowned for its comprehensive coverage, delivering news, in-depth feature stories, practical guidebooks, and detailed product reviews across the domains of consumer electronics, science, and entertainment.

Founding and Editorial Leadership

Launched on November 1, 2011, The Verge was co-founded by a team of visionary media professionals: Joshua Topolsky, Jim Bankoff, and Marty Moe. The editorial direction has been consistently strong, with Nilay Patel serving as the esteemed editor-in-chief and Dieter Bohn previously holding the executive editor position. Helen Havlak was appointed editorial director in 2017, further shaping the site's content strategy.

Recognition and Platform Innovation

Early in its history, The Verge quickly garnered critical acclaim, securing five Webby Awards in 2012. These accolades included recognition for Best Writing (Editorial), Best Podcast for "The Vergecast," Best Visual Design, Best Consumer Electronics Site, and Best Mobile News App. The website's operational backbone is Vox Media's proprietary multimedia publishing platform, Chorus, which facilitates its dynamic content delivery.

Origins

From Engadget

The genesis of The Verge can be traced back to a significant departure of talent from Engadget, a prominent technology news website owned by AOL. Between March and April 2011, a substantial group of writers, editors, and product developers, including Engadget's then editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, left AOL. This exodus also included key figures such as managing editor Nilay Patel and staffers Paul Miller, Ross Miller, Joanna Stern, Chris Ziegler, along with product developers Justin Glow and Dan Chilton. Their collective aim was to establish a new, independent gadget-focused publication.

Partnership with SB Nation

In early April 2011, Topolsky announced that this new, as-yet-unnamed venture would be developed in collaboration with SB Nation, a sports news website. This partnership was strategically significant, with Topolsky highlighting SB Nation's shared vision for the future of digital publishing, emphasizing independent journalism and the in-house development of robust content delivery tools. Jim Bankoff, chairman and CEO of Vox Media (SB Nation's owner), recognized the demographic overlap and the potential to extend SB Nation's successful operational model into the consumer technology sector. Bankoff's prior experience, having led AOL's acquisition of Engadget in 2005, provided a unique perspective on this new endeavor.

The Interim: This Is My Next

During the development phase of the new site, Topolsky launched an interim platform called "This Is My Next." This site served as a temporary home for the popular Engadget podcast, hosted by Patel, Paul Miller, and Topolsky himself. The interim site quickly gained traction, attracting 1 million unique visitors and 3.4 million page views by August 2011. By October of the same year, it boasted 3 million unique monthly views and 10 million total page views. Its success was notable enough for Time magazine to list it among its "Best Blogs of 2011," praising it as an "exemplary" prototype. "This Is My Next" concluded its operations upon the official launch of The Verge on November 1, 2011. Years later, on June 11, 2014, The Verge revived the "This Is My Next" brand as a dedicated buyer's guide for consumer electronics, a section that by 2022 was simply retitled "Buying Guide."

Launch

Official Debut and Growth

The Verge officially launched on November 1, 2011, coinciding with the announcement of its new parent company, Vox Media. The site immediately demonstrated significant reach, reporting 4 million unique visitors and 20 million pageviews at its inception. This was a notable achievement, especially considering that Engadget, at the time of Topolsky's departure, had 14 million unique visitors. The collective strength of Vox Media saw its overall unique visitors double to approximately 15 million during the latter half of 2012, showcasing the rapid impact of The Verge and its sister sites.

Expanding the Editorial Team

At its launch, The Verge's team included 12 former Engadget staffers working alongside Joshua Topolsky. The site continued to attract top talent, hiring Tom Warren, formerly editor-in-chief of Neowin and a prominent WinRumors blogger, as its new UK-based senior editor. In 2013, The Verge further diversified its content by launching a dedicated science section, "Verge Science," with former Wired editor Katie Drummond at the helm, signaling an expansion beyond core consumer technology.

Evolution and Strategic Shifts (2014-Present)

Mid-2014 saw a significant leadership change as Nilay Patel succeeded Topolsky as editor-in-chief. The editorial team was further bolstered in 2015 when journalist Walt Mossberg joined after Vox Media acquired Recode. By 2016, The Verge's advertising strategy evolved, moving from traditional display advertisements to more integrated partnerships and user-adjusted advertisements. The website underwent a significant visual redesign for its fifth anniversary in November 2016, introducing a new logo featuring a modified Penrose triangle, an impossible object, symbolizing its forward-looking perspective. This redesign, dubbed "Verge 3.0," presented a refreshed website alongside the new branding. In September 2022, The Verge underwent another rebranding and redesign, featuring a sharper, more simplistic logo, a more colorful visual aesthetic, and new typefaces. The updated homepage adopted a news feed format, integrating external conversations from social media and reports from other publications, with a stated aim to reduce aggregation reporting. In December 2024, The Verge introduced a subscription service, placing some "premium" reports, newsletters, and reviews behind a paywall, alongside offering fewer advertisements and other exclusive features, citing the challenging market for independent journalism as a key driver for this strategic shift.

Content

Podcasts

The Verge has established a robust podcasting presence, offering a variety of audio content to its audience:

The Vergecast: A live weekly podcast that debuted on November 4, 2011, and notably included a video stream of its hosts.
The Verge Mobile Show: Introduced on November 8, 2011, this second weekly podcast focused specifically on mobile phones.
Ctrl-Walt-Delete: Launched in September 2015, this weekly podcast was hosted by Walt Mossberg.
What's Tech: This podcast was recognized among iTunes's best of 2015.
Why'd You Push That Button?: Debuting in 2017 and co-hosted by Ashley Carman and Kaitlyn Tiffany, it received a Podcast Award in the "This Week in Tech Technology Category" in 2018.
Decoder: Editor-in-chief Nilay Patel hosts this weekly interview podcast, which expanded to two episodes per week in February 2024.

Video

Beyond written articles and podcasts, The Verge has significantly invested in video content:

On The Verge: Initially launched as "The Verge Show" in August 2011, this web television series debuted on November 15, 2011, with its first episode featuring guest Matias Duarte. Modeled after a late-night talk show, it focused on technology news entertainment. After ten episodes, it returned in May 2013 with a new weekly format, logo, and theme tune.
Verge Video: In May 2013, editor-in-chief Topolsky announced Verge Video, a dedicated website housing The Verge's extensive video backlog.
Circuit Breaker: A gadget blog launched in 2016, it quickly amassed nearly a million Facebook followers and debuted a live show on Twitter in October 2017. Its videos consistently average over 465,000 views.
Collaborations: In 2016, USA Network and The Verge partnered on "Mr. Robot Digital After Show," a digital aftershow for the television series "Mr. Robot." Twitter and Vox Media also announced a live streaming partnership for The Verge's coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show.
Original Series: "Next Level," hosted and produced by Lauren Goode, debuted in 2017 and earned recognition in the "Technology" category at the 47th annual San Francisco / Northern California Emmy Awards in 2018. "Space Craft," a web series hosted by science reporter Loren Grush, launched in August 2017. In 2022, The Verge produced "The Future Of" for Netflix.

Controversy

The PC Build Guide Incident

In September 2018, The Verge published an article titled "How to Build a Custom PC for Editing, Gaming or Coding," accompanied by a YouTube video, "How we Built a $2000 Custom Gaming PC." The video quickly drew widespread criticism from the tech community for numerous technical errors demonstrated by its host, Stefan Etienne. A notable error included the application of an excessive amount of thermal paste to the processor, contrary to best practices.

DMCA Takedown and Backlash

Following the criticism, an online harassment campaign against Etienne ensued. In February 2019, lawyers representing Vox Media, The Verge's parent company, issued DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices to YouTube, targeting videos that critically reviewed The Verge's PC build guide, citing copyright infringement. YouTube subsequently removed two of these videos, uploaded by channels BitWit and ReviewTechUSA, and applied copyright "strikes" to them. This action, however, triggered what is known as the Streisand effect, drawing even more attention to the original controversial video and the takedown notices.

Resolution and Reflection

After a request from The Verge's editor Nilay Patel, YouTube reinstated the two videos and retracted the copyright "strikes." While Patel acknowledged agreement with the legal argument for their removal, the public outcry led to their restoration. Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica highlighted the incident as an example of the Streisand effect, noting that legal precedents generally support such critical commentary under fair use doctrine. Nearly three years later, in September 2021, PC builder and YouTuber Linus Sebastian collaborated with Stefan Etienne in a video titled "Fixing the Verge PC build." In this follow-up, Etienne admitted his limited experience at the time of the original video, having built only four computers, with The Verge's build being his first on camera. He also revealed that The Verge had been unwilling to address his concerns about editing issues before the video's initial upload.

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References

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Digital Chronicles: The Verge's Journey in Tech Journalism

💡 Dive in with Flashcard Learning! 💡

Introduction 💡

🌐 A Hub for Technology News

🚀 Founding and Editorial Leadership

🏆 Recognition and Platform Innovation

Origins 🌱

exodus From Engadget

🤝 Partnership with SB Nation

🚧 The Interim: This Is My Next

Launch 🎉

🗓️ Official Debut and Growth

👥 Expanding the Editorial Team

🔄 Evolution and Strategic Shifts (2014-Present)

Content 📰

🎧 Podcasts

🎬 Video

Controversy 🚨

🖥️ The PC Build Guide Incident

⚖️ DMCA Takedown and Backlash

🤝 Resolution and Reflection

Teacher's Corner 🧑‍🏫

Edit and Print this course in the Wiki2Web Teacher Studio

True or False? 🤔

❓ Test Your Knowledge! ❓

Gamer's Corner 🎮

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References

📜 References

Feedback & Support 👍

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Disclaimer ⚠️

📜 Important Notice

Dive in with Flashcard Learning!

Introduction

A Hub for Technology News

Founding and Editorial Leadership

Recognition and Platform Innovation

Origins

From Engadget

Partnership with SB Nation

The Interim: This Is My Next

Launch

Official Debut and Growth

Expanding the Editorial Team

Evolution and Strategic Shifts (2014-Present)

Content

Podcasts

Video

Controversy

The PC Build Guide Incident

DMCA Takedown and Backlash

Resolution and Reflection

Teacher's Corner

True or False?

Test Your Knowledge!

Gamer's Corner

Discover other topics to study!

References

Feedback & Support

Disclaimer

Important Notice