Back in the day (2015) NBC Universal invested $200 million at a $1 billion valuation. If memory serves, that brought total funding to over $300 millions, cash.
From Washingtonian, November 20:
Only one of the news site's founders remains.
Vox co-founder Ezra Klein and editor-in-chief Lauren Williams are leaving the news site, announced Melissa Bell, publisher of Vox Media, on Friday. The news comes just a week after another co-founder, Matthew Yglesias, announced his departure, citing a desire to reclaim “an independent voice.”
Without Klein and Yglesias, Bell will be the last of the Vox co-founders left at the outlet. Williams started at Vox as a managing editor a few months after the site’s 2014 launch.
In January, Klein will head to the New York Times, where he’ll write a reported policy column for the opinion section, and host a podcast. His current Vox podcast, “The Ezra Klein Show,” will come to an end. Williams is leaving in February to start a nonprofit called Capital B, focused on creating civic journalism tailored to Black communities.
Yglesias, meanwhile, is already onto his next gig, writing a Substack newsletter called “Slow Boring.” ....MORE
Related, this morning's "The Substackerati"
And from 2018:
Media: "BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti’s increasing pessimism and why it matters"
....All these companies raised so much money and that is part of the problem.
Two of the most cogent expositions of the challenges facing new media came from Talking Points Memo, in November 2017 and April 2018:
Is Venture Capital Destroying Online Journalism?
I don't know but having spent some time trying to front run Sand Hill Road and understand things like Uber I have to say this is an interesting insight.
From Talking Points Memo, November 17:....
