Vox turns 5

When I made the decision to come to Vox shortly after it launched, I was excited about its founders’ vision for an explanatory news brand. But more than that vision itself, what convinced me to leave a job I enjoyed for the great unknown of a startup that had been around for just two months was the unwavering dedication to that vision, and belief in its promise, that radiated from Vox’s founders Ezra Klein, Melissa Bell, and Matt Yglesias.

Through the chaos and learning-as-we-go vibe of those early months, and, later, unsettling shifts in the digital media business, Vox has had an anchor: a pristine clarity of purpose that’s translated across beats, platforms, and mediums. We explain. We give the context. We go deep. We put our audience first.

On Vox’s fifth anniversary, this clarity of purpose is the throughline of our best work — our in-depth explainers on Vox.com; our Emmy-nominated YouTube videos; Explained on Netflix; podcasts such as Today, Explained and The Weeds; Future Perfect and The Goods verticals; The Highlight on Apple News+; and our upcoming partnership with Recode.

In an industry that’s constantly changing, it’s not easy to predict the new places Vox will go in the next five years, but I can promise that no matter where you find us, our founding promise to our audience will remain true.

Without the work of our brilliant staff of journalists, some of whom took a risk to join “Project X” and are still here to toast this milestone anniversary, we would not be celebrating this level of success five years in. And without the support of folks across Vox Media, and especially our CEO Jim Bankoff, we would never have been able to build out a home for our distinctive journalism.

If you want to hear more about the founding of Vox and the team’s mistakes, challenges, and achievements, check out the latest episode of The Ezra Klein Show (embedded below) with Melissa and Matt, and read these reflections from Vox staffers.

On behalf of myself, Allison Rockey, Joe Posner, and the rest of Vox’s leadership team, thank you to everyone who has read, watched, and listened to Vox in the last five years.