Dotdash Meredith facts for kids
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Digital media |
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| Founded | April 21, 1997 (as The Mining Company) |
| Founder | Scott Kurnit |
| Headquarters |
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U.S.
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Key people
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| Parent |
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Dotdash Meredith is a big American company that creates online articles and videos. It's based in New York City. They publish information on many topics like health, home, food, money, and travel.
You might know some of their popular websites. These include Verywell (for health), Investopedia (for money), People (for news and entertainment), and Brides (for weddings). They also own The Spruce (for home), Simply Recipes (for cooking), and Lifewire (for tech). The company makes money through advertising on its websites.
Contents
History of Dotdash Meredith
Starting as The Mining Company (1997-2005)
The company started in 1996 as "The Mining Company." It officially launched on April 21, 1997. Scott Kurnit and other business people in New York City founded it. Their first goal was to cover 1,800 different topics online.
In May 1999, the company changed its name to "About Inc." Its website also changed from "miningco.com" to "about.com." In 2000, another company called Primedia, Inc. bought About Inc. This was a big deal worth about $690 million. At that time, About Inc. was very popular. It had 21 million visitors each month. It also had over 700 topic websites.
Becoming Part of The New York Times Company (2005-2012)
In February 2005, The New York Times Company bought About.com. This purchase cost $410 million. After this, About.com grew even more.
In March 2007, About.com had 33.5 million unique visitors. They also bought other websites like ConsumerSearch.com. This site helped people find reviews for products.
About.com also tried to expand internationally. In December 2007, they launched Abang.com in China. This site had articles in Chinese on topics like fashion, food, and travel. The name "Abang" means "group" or "community" in Chinese.
In April 2011, About.com launched its first Spanish-language website, About en Español. It started with nine topics and planned to add many more. This was part of a plan to reach more people. It also included new ways for advertisers to work with About.com.
Joining IAC and Relaunching (2012-2017)
In August 2012, a company called IAC bought About.com for $300 million. IAC owns many other online brands, like Ask.com. This purchase helped IAC make its online presence even stronger.
When IAC bought About.com, the website had almost 1,000 topic sites. It also had over three million articles. It was ranked as one of the most visited websites in the U.S.
On April 2, 2013, Neil Vogel became the new CEO of About.com. He had a plan to make the website better for users. He wanted people to spend more time on the site. He focused on making the site work well on phones and tablets.
In April 2014, the About.com team grew. They also updated the website's technology. This made the site more interactive. They focused on "responsive web design." This means the website looks good on any device, like phones or tablets. About 40% of their visitors came from mobile devices.
The About.com website got a big new look in September 2014. This redesign made it easier for users to find information. It also made it simpler to share articles on social media.
Becoming Dotdash and Merging with Meredith (2017-Present)
On May 2, 2017, About.com changed its name again. It became Dotdash. CEO Neil Vogel explained that the company wanted a fresh start. They wanted to focus on specific topics.
Dotdash created several specialized websites:
- The Balance for personal finance.
- Lifewire for technology.
- The Spruce for home and food.
- Verywell for health.
- TripSavvy for travel.
- ThoughtCo for education.
In March 2018, Dotdash won an award for "Publisher of the Year." Later that year, Investopedia joined the Dotdash family of brands.
Dotdash continued to grow by buying more popular websites:
- In January 2019, they bought Byrdie (beauty) and MyDomaine (women's lifestyle).
- In May 2019, they acquired Brides from Conde Nast.
- In October 2019, they bought Liquor.com.
- In February 2020, TreeHugger and Mother Nature Network joined Dotdash.
- In September 2020, they acquired Simply Recipes and Serious Eats (both food websites).
On October 6, 2021, Dotdash made a huge announcement. They bought most of Meredith's magazines and other assets. This deal was worth $2.7 billion. The two companies combined to form Dotdash Meredith. This made them one of the largest digital media companies.
After the merger, Dotdash Meredith made some changes. In February 2022, they announced that several former Meredith magazines would stop printing. These magazines, like Entertainment Weekly and InStyle, would become digital-only.]
