Corporate Citizenship Our responsibility as the leading modern media company
Our responsibility as the leading modern media company
We are Vox Media, the leading independent modern media company. We inspire essential conversations that touch every aspect of life, culture, and technology. Our storied past and passion for progress drive us to discover what’s now, what’s next, and what’s possible.
Beyond our editorial is a commitment to corporate citizenship – a belief that it is our responsibility to build a better media industry. Creating a company culture defined by constant work toward a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. Raising standards around what it means to create a safe online ecosystem. Inventing and sharing new publishing technologies and storytelling tools. Giving back to the communities in which we live and work. And remaining inclusive, respectful, and ambitious, upholding our Vox Media values.
It’s from this mindset – action-oriented, optimistic, and always learning – that we hope to improve our company and the industries and communities that we serve.
1. We support the next generation of media leaders
Our industry needs more of the voices who were historically excluded from newsrooms, advertising, and technology, in order to best connect with and serve our audiences. Alongside supporting our people, we aspire to reach, support, and mentor new and emerging voices.
- A measurable commitment to change: Accountability to making progress toward Vox Media’s own diversity, equity, and inclusion goals by publishing our DE&I pillars, demographic information, and milestones as well as partnering with third-party experts.
- Mentorship programs: Programs that elevate, train, or mentor promising talent historically underrepresented in media, such as the Vox Media Fellowship Program, Vox Media Writers Workshop, on-demand training program Brainery, and Media 101 Certificate Program with the media agency UM.
- Communities of color: Bring new ideas and notable speakers to events hosted by organizations such as the Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, and National Association of Hispanic Journalists, along with industry events hosted by Vox Media’s Employee Resource Groups.
2. We invent advertising and publishing technologies that also do good
Effectively serving the media industry, from local newsrooms to multinational brands, requires inventing technologies and creating better advertising practices that are flexible, inclusive, and meet the needs of our audiences, clients, and partners.
- An ad marketplace that gives back: Supporting local news and communities of color through the Concert advertising marketplace, a brand-suitable network that both enables local newsrooms to find regional advertisers and donates a portion of revenue to a social justice charity.
- Safe online conversations: Promoting our own platforms, like the Coral community tool as well as joining partnerships, such as the Coalition Against Online Violence, that create a productive, safe space while supporting journalists if they are harassed online.
- Values-driven practices: Alongside ad content policies that restrict companies from spreading false information or promoting violence, tools like Forte and services like the social-impact practice Vox Media IQ strive to help brand partners more responsibility and effectively share their messages.
3. We give, via our services and our voices
With a broad reach across audiences and platforms, through our pro bono work and partnerships, Vox Media lends support to the communities we serve on the issues that impact our employees and audiences most.
- Pro bono creative ad services: Pro bono creative advertising services for partners, with a dedicated fund of $3.5M over two years in support of racial equity campaigns.
- Partnerships for good: Pairing our editorial networks with brand partners to spotlight and support organizations and communities in need. Our strategic partnerships have recently contributed to the NAACP, Innocence Project, World Central Kitchen, and New York City programs that, through City Harvest, fed over 250,000 NYC children.
- Open source guidelines and best practices: Elevating newsroom standards of reporting on topics including race, gender identity, sexuality, and disability – and their intersectionality – with internal editorial guidelines shared with newsrooms across the industry through our Language, Please project (funded by Google News Initiative).
- Volunteering: Programs inclusive of volunteering legal support to initiatives such as the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline through the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.
There will be no moment when this work is complete. Rather, these efforts are ongoing ways to make our Vox Media voice heard, turn our values into actions, and commit to strong corporate citizenship.
About Vox Media’s Corporate Citizenship
Vox Media’s corporate citizenship is built on the belief that, as the leading modern media company, it is our responsibility to build a better media industry.
At Vox Media we are committed to building and sustaining a company and an industry that is diverse, inclusive, and safe for our people and our audiences. As a community of journalists and storytellers, business professionals, creators and technologists, we believe it is a moral and business imperative to amplify voices, share our best practices, and give back to our industry and the communities we live and work in.
The creativity and ambition to do this work has come from every division and from people at every level of the company, with the initiative launched and led by Vox Media’s communications & public affairs team.