Vox Media Chief Revenue Officer Ryan Pauley has dealt with a lot since the pandemic hit two months ago.
His team first had to deal with the cancellation of South by Southwest, where Vox Media usually sets up a large presence. Then advertisers panicked and pulled spend. And now those same advertisers are reentering, albeit they’re trying to message consumers in a vastly changed economic and social climate.
Ryan, holed up in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood, is focused on adapting and being flexible with advertisers
Brands are now wondering how to reenter the market. They’re leaning on Vox Media to provide insights into what readers want to do and watch, and how to make ad creative that’s sensitive and resonates during this time.
Vox Media, too, has had to weather the storm. In April, it furloughed employees and cut salaries and benefits to keep the business going as some revenue dried up.
But Ryan is optimistic about the company’s future. Vox Media and New York Media combined last year, which gave it needed scale to ride out the storm. New York Media had its biggest month of new subscribers
in April, bringing in triple the number of new subscribers as it did the year before. And its commerce business, via
The Strategist, has also been a bright spot bringing in revenue during the pandemic.
“All of these things make me think we’re weathering this crisis much more strongly together than we would separately,” Ryan says – the power of banding together during a challenging time.
