James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems is reportedly in advanced talks to buy Vox Media’s New York Magazine and podcast division — potentially a major shakeup in the fraught digital media industry.
Recent months have seen Vox explore selling the prestigious lefty mag and its podcast network, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Wall Street Journal, though a deal with Murdoch could still fall apart, they noted.
Murdoch, the younger son of News Corp founder and New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch, launched Lupa in 2019 after he stepped down as chief executive of 21st Century Fox.
Along with New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network — which includes the popular podcast Pivot, hosted by Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher — Vox Media is home to Eater, SB Nation and more. The company has weighed selling parts of its business, a stake in it or the entire enterprise, sources told The Post.
The sale process has drawn multiple suitors, including MS NOW’s parent company Versant, according to the New York Times.
For James Murdoch, scooping up New York Magazine and Vox’s podcast division would significantly enhance Lupa’s media portfolio. Lupa currently has a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival, and it has financially backed Bodhi Tree Systems, one of India’s biggest media investors.
On top of that, Murdoch and his wife Kathryn founded Quadrivium, which has backed The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom focused on gender and politics, and The Bulwark, a so-called “Never Trump” digital media company.
Murdoch is flush with cash after the sale of parts of his family’s media business to Disney in 2019, as well as a mammoth settlement last year with Rupert Murdoch over the family’s trust. Under that agreement, James Murdoch and his siblings Elizabeth and Prudence received about $1.1 billion each to relinquish their stakes, ensuring older brother Lachlan Murdoch will run the media empire.
For Vox Media, a sale to James Murdoch would be a major change for the privately-owned digital company. Over the past 15 years, CEO Jim Bankoff grew the company from sports blog SB Nation to a digital juggernaut that included New York Magazine, The Dodo, Eater and Recode, a tech site co-founded by Swisher that produced the company’s first podcast.
However, the digital media industry has become increasingly challening as advertising spending has moved to social media platforms, pushing Bankoff to pursue alternative strategies. In 2023, Penske Media, owner of Rolling Stone and Variety, became Vox’s largest shareholder with a $100 million strategic investment.
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