The Verge aims to attract a more diverse audience, especially younger readers and more women. Currently, most readers are men aged 25-34. The Verge posts content to 10 social media platforms to reach audiences where they spend time. They produce multiple versions and formats of stories for each platform, such as short videos for Facebook and Snapchat. While social media drives some traffic, the Verge maintains overall traffic through search engine optimization and investing in new platforms before they contribute directly to site traffic. Their goal is building their audience wherever people interact with their content.

1. AUDIENCE
DEVELOPMENT
ISOJ 2015

2. 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.
TECH SCIENCE ENTERTAINMEN
T
CARS

3. WHO IS OUR CURRENT AUDIENCE?
19% FEMALE
81% MALE
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
GENDER AGEDEVICE
DesktopMobile
Tablet
The 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.

4. 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, it’s a lot more complicated. Fans expect the content to
come to them on whatever platform they’re most comfortable reading, watching, or commenting. Our on-
site and off-site audiences are increasingly distinct.
NEWS VIDEO LIVEBLOG
S
GALLERIES FORUMS
THEVERGE.COM

5. 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.

6. WHAT THAT MEANS FOR VIDEO
THE VERGE HAS A SKILLED VIDEO TEAM INTEGRATED DIRECTLY INTO EDITORIAL. FOR US, IT’S
NOT A QUESTION OF PRODUCING QUALITY VIDEOS BUT OF ENSURING DISCOVERABILITY.
YouTube
TheVerge.
com
Facebook
SNAPCHAT LIVE VIDEOPRODUCED VIDEO

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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 don’t
directly contribute to site traffic. A
Verge reader or video viewer is a
valuable part of The Verge’s audience,
wherever that interaction happens.
32%
SOCIAL
30%
ORGANIC SEARCH
21%
DIRECT
17%
REFERRAL
<1%
OTHER
32%
30%
21%
17%

11. THANK YOU