PowerPoint Presentation

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT ISOJ 2015

WHAT IS THE VERGE?

The Verge was founded in 2011 in partnership with Vox Media, and covers the intersection of technology, science, art, and culture. Our mission is to offer in-depth reporting and long-form feature stories, breaking news coverage, product information, and community content in a unified and cohesive manner. The site is powered by Vox Media's Chorus platform, a modern media stack built for web-native news in the 21st century.

TECHSCIENCEENTERTAINMENTCARS

Not pictured: video and features, which span every major topic. Also call out EVERYTHING IS A TECH STORY.2

WHO IS OUR CURRENT AUDIENCE?

19% FEMALE

81% MALE

GENDERAGE

DEVICEThe majority of current Verge readers are men aged 25 to 34 which is a valuable but narrow niche. Our major audience development opportunity for the next 12 months is to attract a dedicated female readership. To get there, we will need to continue investing in new voices and coverage areas, and carefully consider the strategies for each of our distribution platforms.

Note, NEW sessions specifically 3

THE OLD PLATFORM MODEL

The traditional website model is to drive as many people as possible to your site from search, social, and referrals and collect the ad revenue. But these days, its a lot more complicated. Fans expect the content to come to them on whatever platform theyre most comfortable reading, watching, or commenting. Our on-site and off-site audiences are increasingly distinct.NEWSVIDEOLIVEBLOGSGALLERIESFORUMS

THEVERGE.COM

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WHERE OUR AUDIENCE IS NOW

The Verge posts daily to ten different social platforms, each with its own audience and its own interests. This involves careful curation of what stories are right for what channels, and often involves writing new copy, sourcing new images, and making on-the-fly social videos.

What makes it worth it? In terms of demographics and usage habits, we know that the overlap of active users between platforms is relatively small. And with Facebook skewing increasingly older,* the only way to reach younger readers is through platforms like Snapchat and Instagram.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/new-social-stratosphere-who-using-facebook-twitter-pinterest-tumblr-and-instagram-2015-and-beyond-16225

WHAT THAT MEANS FOR VIDEO

THE VERGE HAS A SKILLED VIDEO TEAM INTEGRATED DIRECTLY INTO EDITORIAL. FOR US, ITS NOT A QUESTION OF PRODUCING QUALITY VIDEOS BUT OF ENSURING DISCOVERABILITY.

SNAPCHATLIVE VIDEOPRODUCED VIDEO

Snapchats = 15K views / snap. Periscope = 2K concurrents (Ellen did 4K concurrents on her show)6

ADAPTING A VIDEO TO FACEBOOK

THIS WAS RECUT FROM A LONGER FEATURE WITH NEW VO AND INTEGRATED TEXT FOR SILENT AUTO-PLAYS IN NEWSFEED. IT DID 650K VIEWS ON FACEBOOK, VS. 250K ON YOUTUBE.

HOW A STORY COMES TO LIFE

FOR ONE STORY, WE OFTEN MAKE AS MANY AS FOUR DIFFERENT CUTS OF A VIDEO TO REACH SPECIFIC AUDIENCES ON EACH CHANNEL PLUS GIFS, PHOTOS, SNAPS, & LIVE PERSICOPE DEMOS.

WE ARE EVERYWHERE. #1 search result for Apple Watch review for a week.8

HOW A STORY COMES TO LIFE

EVEN FOR STORIES WITHOUT ORIGINAL VIDEO, WE WILL CAREFULLY CURATE IMAGES, GIFS, AND QUOTES FOR SOCIAL PROMOTION, SUCH AS TUMBLR GALLERIES.

NOT DEPENDING ON ONE TRAFFIC SOURCE

Overall, The Verge maintains steady traffic by not depending exclusively on any one distribution platform. We pay as much attention to SEO as we do to social, and we invest heavily in new social platforms even when they dont directly contribute to site traffic. A Verge reader or video viewer is a valuable part of The Verges audience, wherever that interaction happens. 32% SOCIAL

30% ORGANIC SEARCH

21% DIRECT

17% REFERRAL