Vox Media buys Walt Mossberg’s Recode

Re/code will continue to operate under the same name and leadership. However, the site’s product reviewers are joining The Verge.

Vox Media has acquired Recode, the business-oriented technology website that veteran journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher started last year. Recode is an offshoot of AllThingsD, a popular technology website owned by The Wall Street Journal. Mossberg and Swisher confirmed the news earlier today at Recode’s Code Conference.

“This is the next big step in our mission to bring you quality tech journalism, because our work will now be amplified and enhanced by Vox Media’s deep and broad skill set,” Mossberg and Swisher said in a statement. Recode will continue to publish under the same and leadership. However, Recode’s top-notch product reviewers will be joining The Verge, Vox Media’s technology website.

According to The New York Times, the deal will be an all-stock deal, although the financial details were not disclosed. What is certain is that Recode’s solid staff of 44 full-time employees will be joining Vox Media. Under the leadership of Jim Bankoff, Vox Media is aspiring to become the Time Inc. for the digital age. Vox Media also owns SBNation, Vox.com, which is led by former Washington Post journalist Ezra Klein, and the Curbed Network websites Curbed, Easter, and Racked.

Recode and The Verge are both technology websites, but there’s only a 4 percent audience overlap between the two digital publications, according to Comscore. The Verge is also focused on the lifestyle aspect of technology, covering science, entertainment, culture, and more. Recode, on the other hand, leans on the business side of technology. Given the case, it is a perfect match.

“Vox Media is built around empowering the most talented digital voices—from our beginnings as a network of sports bloggers in SB Nation through our launch of The Verge, Polygon, acquisition of Curbed LLC and launch of Vox.com, we’ve been all about building media brands through the combination of media hackers, platform and culture,“ said Jim Bankoff. “The addition of Kara, Walt and the rest of the Re/code team is a natural progression of our focus.”

The Re/Code deal marks another point in the ongoing consolidation of news sites on the web. It has become much harder to survive in today’s online media world as it has been a couple years ago. Re/Code is a top property and this can be seen as a deal for growth. GigaOm was not so lucky. The site got shut down and got gutted. Yesterday Knowingly Corp, an Austin-based startup bought portions of GigaOm assets.