Vox Media acquires Recode; Fusion shuts down DC bureau

D.C. and New York-based Vox acquired Recode in an all-stock deal for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced Tuesday.
As part of the move, Recode will now be integrated in Vox’s marketing, sales and broader infrastructure. It will eventually move its content to Chorus, Vox’s very own CMS, but will keep its recode.net URL.
Journalists Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher founded the news site and conference business as AllThingsD in 2007. The company was under the Dow Jones umbrella until it broke off in 2014 and rebranded as Recode.
More from the New York Times:

The site grew out of a popular conference business that became known for hosting tech luminaries like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. The conference business continued to grow and was an attractive part of ReCode’s portfolio for Vox.

But as traditional news organizations and upstarts alike descended on Silicon Valley, ReCode found itself somewhat lost in the crowd.

“Everybody is bigger than us,” Ms. Swisher said in a phone interview. “It’s not a secret that being a smaller fish is really hard.”

According to the Times, Vox Media sites attracted 53.2 million unique U.S. visitors last month. Late last year, Vox announced it had closed a $46.5 million round with investment firm General Atlantic.

Meanwhile, the hits keep coming for Fusion, the joint operation between ABC News and Univision.

Fresh on the heels of an unflattering profile in the New York Times, Politico is reporting that the flailing, millennial-focused outfit is closing its D.C. office:

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, at least two of the three Fusion employees at the bureau — associate editor Emily DeRuy’s and immigration editor Ted Hesson — were laid off on Tuesday. Both were given a severance package and both declined to comment (though Hesson tweeted out the news and gratitude to the network on Wednesday).
Fusion spokesperson David Ford declined to comment on specifics regarding personnel matters but said the network is restructuring its politics team.