Trei Brundrett's guest appearances

Trei Brundrett

Press Publish – Nieman Lab

Karen McGrane

Jay Rosen

Clay Christensen

Dan Sinker

C.W. Anderson

Matt Thompson

Amy Mitchell

Jason Kint

Cory Haik

Tiffany Shackelford

Michael Maness

Rick Edmonds

Jesse Holcomb

Erin Kissane

Jenna Weiss-Berman

OwlTail

It’s Episode 4 of Press Publish, the Nieman Lab podcast! My guest this week is Trei Brundrett, the VP for product and technology at Vox Media. Vox is the publisher of the sports site SB Nation, the tech site The Verge, and video game site Polygon, and it’s one of my very favorite online media companies. I love that they’re ambitious on content — building a quality mix of short and long, user-generated and pro-generated, aggregated and original — and that they’re ambitious on technology. And they make money. To me, Vox feels like one of a very few online media companies that is both native to the web and invested in some traditional values about quality. They’re worth watching, even if you have no interest at all in sports, tech, or video games. Trei started out in the world of politics and helped build SB Nation to the point that it could evolve into Vox. When Adweek named him to its Adweek 50 (“the people who make the machinery of media, marketing and technology hum”), this is what they said about him: Under Brundrett’s direction, Vox Media has evolved into one of the most agile Web-based publishers. Building a proprietary content management platform, his technology powers the journalists of The Verge, Polygon and over 300 SB Nation fan-created media properties. Focused on functional and design-rich technology, Brundrett and Vox have pushed past conventional Web design with efforts such as StoryStream, which populates a writer’s updates in real time to provide an organized and intuitive history of complex breaking news. We had a good, wide-ranging conversation about Vox’s evolution and where it’s headed in 2013. Give it a listen, and I hope (if you haven’t already) you’ll subscribe to Press Publish in the podcast app of your choice. Listen Download the MP3 Or listen in your browser: [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/niemanlab/PressPublish004.mp3] Subscribe in iTunes Subscribe (RSS) Show notes @clockwerks, Trei on Twitter Trei’s resume Vox Media SB Nation, Vox’s sports site The Verge, Vox’s tech site Polygon, Vox’s gaming site Vox Media 2012 By the Numbers (185 employees; 389,692 pieces of content; 35,412,480 comments) Chorus, Vox Media’s proprietary backend Vox Media’s product team blog Markos Moulitsas Jerome Armstrong Tyler Bleszinski Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) Ryan Gantz Daily Kos Daily Kos’ diaries Trei in an Astros hat Scoop CMS Slashdot Rusty Foster “For once, Nick Denton seems pleased with Gawker’s commenting system” Canal Street Chronicles, an example of a SB Nation community site Jim Bankoff, Vox CEO Content management systems Nieman Lab stories on Jim Bankoff and Vox An example of a SB Nation player page An example of a Verge product page An example of a Polygon game page An example of The Verge’s product comparison tool The Verge’s features page Vox Product blog: “An inside peek into the Polygon design process” An example of a templated, less-“designed” feature: “After Aaron: how an antiquated law enables the government’s war on hackers, activists, and you” An example of a more designed feature: “For Amusement Only: the life and death of the American arcade An example of a Verge review (of the iPad mini) Source’s interview with Vox staff on building the arcades feature A few videos from Vox Studios, Vox’s “in-house creative and production group” that does work for both editorial and business-side An episode of “90 Seconds on The Verge,” the site’s daily video briefing An episode of “On The Verge,” the site’s late-night-talk-show-style program, hosted by Josh Topolsky, with example of an integrated sponsorship from Ford (go to 45:50) The New York Times’ Snow Fall package An example of a SB Nation Storystream, on the Pro Bowl SB Nation United, the site’s recent rebranding and visual unification The Atlantic’s Scientology sponsored-content snafu SB Nation’s Marines sponsored-content package SB Nation user SDCat09, who has left 227,399 comments (at this writing) “How We Moderate Here On SB Nation” The Verge iPhone app Editable comments The Verge’s iPad mini liveblog An example of a Vox review that’s been revised over time Photo by @nivshah used under a Creative Commons license.

It’s Episode 4 of <a href="http://www.presspublish.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Press Publish</a>, the Nieman Lab podcast! My guest this week is <a href="https://twitter.com/clockwerks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Trei Brundrett</a>, the VP for product and technology at <a href="http://www.voxmedia.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vox Media</a>. Vox is the publisher of the sports site <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SB Nation</a>, the tech site <a href="http://www.theverge.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Verge</a>, and video game site <a href="http://www.polygon.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Polygon</a>, and it’s one of my very favorite online media companies. I love that they’re ambitious on content — building a quality mix of short and long, user-generated and pro-generated, aggregated and original — and that they’re ambitious on technology. And they make money. To me, Vox feels like one of a very few online media companies that is both native to the web and invested in some traditional values about quality. They’re worth watching, even if you have no interest at all in sports, tech, or video games. Trei started out in the world of politics and helped build SB Nation to the point that it could evolve into Vox. When Adweek named him <a href="http://www.polygon.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">to its Adweek 50</a> (“the people who make the machinery of media, marketing and technology hum”), this is what they said about him: <blockquote>Under Brundrett’s direction, Vox Media has evolved into one of the most agile Web-based publishers. Building a proprietary content management platform, his technology powers the journalists of The Verge, Polygon and over 300 SB Nation fan-created media properties. Focused on functional and design-rich technology, Brundrett and Vox have pushed past conventional Web design with efforts such as StoryStream, which populates a writer’s updates in real time to provide an organized and intuitive history of complex breaking news.</blockquote> We had a good, wide-ranging conversation about Vox’s evolution and where it’s headed in 2013. Give it a listen, and I hope (if you haven’t already) you’ll subscribe to Press Publish in the podcast app of your choice. <h3>Listen</h3> <a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/niemanlab/PressPublish004.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download the MP3</a> Or listen in your browser: [audio:<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/niemanlab/PressPublish004.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://traffic.libsyn.com/niemanlab/PressPublish004.mp3</a>] <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/press-publish/id592636587" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe in iTunes</a> <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/category/press-publish/feed/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe (RSS)</a> <h3>Show notes</h3> <a href="https://twitter.com/clockwerks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@clockwerks, Trei on Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/clockwerks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Trei’s resume</a> <a href="http://www.voxmedia.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vox Media</a> <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SB Nation</a>, Vox’s sports site <a href="http://www.theverge.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Verge</a>, Vox’s tech site <a href="http://www.polygon.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Polygon</a>, Vox’s gaming site <a href="http://www.voxmedia.com/2012-in-review/vox_media_2012_annual_report.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vox Media 2012 By the Numbers (185 employees; 389,692 pieces of content; 35,412,480 comments)</a> <a href="http://product.voxmedia.com/post/21784396576/all-together-now-introducing-the-vox-product-blog-and" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chorus, Vox Media’s proprietary backend</a> <a href="http://product.voxmedia.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vox Media’s product team blog</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markos_Moulitsas" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Markos Moulitsas</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Armstrong" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jerome Armstrong</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/papiblez" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tyler Bleszinski</a> <a href="http://www.warner.senate.gov/public/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/sixfoot6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ryan Gantz</a> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Daily Kos</a> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/diaries" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Daily Kos’ diaries</a> <a href="https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2845741941/732bf90726e616fa23c98cadf4f9aef6.jpeg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Trei in an Astros hat</a> <a href="http://www.scoopdev.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scoop CMS</a> <a href="http://slashdot.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Slashdot</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty_Foster" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rusty Foster</a> <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/07/for-once-nick-denton-seems-pleased-with-gawkers-commenting-system/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“For once, Nick Denton seems pleased with Gawker’s commenting system”</a> <a href="http://www.canalstreetchronicles.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Canal Street Chronicles</a>, an example of a SB Nation community site <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bankoff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jim Bankoff</a>, Vox CEO <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Content management systems</a> <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/tag/jim-bankoff/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nieman Lab stories on Jim Bankoff and Vox</a> <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/players/1998/drew-brees#stories_tab" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a SB Nation player page</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/products/ideapad-y580/4604" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a Verge product page</a> <a href="http://www.polygon.com/game/call-of-duty-black-ops/2176" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a Polygon game page</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/6244/5799" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of The Verge’s product comparison tool</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/features/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Verge’s features page</a> <a href="http://product.voxmedia.com/post/41372936322/an-inside-peek-into-the-polygon-design-process" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vox Product blog: “An inside peek into the Polygon design process”</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/18/3888528/after-aaron-swartz-how-antiquated-computer-laws-enable-the" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a templated, less-“designed” feature: “After Aaron: how an antiquated law enables the government’s war on hackers, activists, and you”</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/16/3740422/the-life-and-death-of-the-american-arcade-for-amusement-only" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a more designed feature: “For Amusement Only: the life and death of the American arcade</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/30/3576178/apple-ipad-mini-review" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a Verge review (of the iPad mini)</a> <a href="http://source.mozillaopennews.org/en-US/articles/how-we-made-for-amusement-only/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source’s interview with Vox staff on building the arcades feature</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/voxstudios" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A few videos from Vox Studios, Vox’s “in-house creative and production group” that does work for both editorial and business-side</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/29/3930298/microsoft-office-2013-apple-500px-tomorrowland-90sotv" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An episode of “90 Seconds on The Verge,” the site’s daily video briefing</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/57692785" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An episode of “On The Verge,” the site’s late-night-talk-show-style program, hosted by Josh Topolsky, with example of an integrated sponsorship from Ford (go to 45:50)</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The New York Times’ Snow Fall package</a> <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/2013/1/27/3921760/2013-pro-bowl-online-tv-schedule-radio" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a SB Nation Storystream, on the Pro Bowl</a> <a href="http://product.voxmedia.com/post/31278489516/sb-nation-united-the-big-rebrand" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SB Nation United, the site’s recent rebranding and visual unification</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/01/15/the-atlantics-scientology-problem-start-to-finish/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Atlantic’s Scientology sponsored-content snafu</a> <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/marines-core-of-sports" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SB Nation’s Marines sponsored-content package</a> <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/SDcat09" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SB Nation user SDCat09, who has left 227,399 comments (at this writing)</a> <a href="http://bayarea.sbnation.com/2010/9/29/1718538/how-we-moderate-here-on-sb-nation" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“How We Moderate Here On SB Nation”</a> <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-verge/id542512225?mt=8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Verge iPhone app</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/15/3880966/we-have-editable-comments" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Editable comments</a> <a href="http://live.theverge.com/apple-ipad-mini-live-blog/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Verge’s iPad mini liveblog</a> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/18/3658130/nintendo-wii-u-review" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An example of a Vox review that’s been revised over time</a> Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/clockwerks/7900698554/in/photostream/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@nivshah</a> used under a Creative Commons license.

Press Publish 4: Trei Brundrett on how Vox Media has built a web-native media company with editorial ambition