Curbed, Vox Media’s national real estate and urban design site, will soon become part of New York magazine. Curbed will function as a semiautonomous vertical on their New York website, similar to Vulture or The Cut.
The new site will explore cities and city life from every perspective: neighborhoods, characters, power brokers and rabble-rousers, architecture/urbanism/real estate, and “Design Hunting,” an expanded version of New York Magazine writer Wendy Goodman’s segment in her column.
What is Curbed?
Curbed has long been a go-to site for design, architecture, and real estate enthusiasts. However, Vox Media property will merge into New York Magazine, granting Curbed a more national presence than its current city-specific outposts.
New York will expand its scope with this relaunch and make Curbed’s distinctive style accessible to more readers. Beyond covering New York-specific stories, “Cityscape,” which offers architectural and urbanism pieces that explore how cities operate, and “Real Estate,” which covers everything from macro market analysis to microsite listings and curiosities, will all play a part.
Nice Try!: Interior is part of this national launch and will explore how consumers are sold products to meet their version of utopia – be it mattresses promising better rest. These doorbells provide additional security or cookware, ensuring tasty home meals.
According to an internal Vox memo shared with Daily Beast, this merger will put Curbed on an editorially ambitious but also more profitable path. Editors will continue working under New York Magazine leadership, while its brand will be integrated within New York Magazine homepage and website navigation similar to Vulture or The Cut.
Curbed’s relaunch marks an end to city publications in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, and Chicago and reduced frequency for New York City publications; Los Angeles and San Francisco publications will continue with less frequent updates; furthermore, the website and logo have been revamped with this change.
Cityscape
Before 2019, New York Magazine’s architecture and urban design coverage was scattered among multiple verticals–even its website. That all changed when Vox Media acquired New York magazine in 2019 and folded Curbed, its urban design and real estate sites, into their fold. Curbed was abruptly shut down with staff being let go; one month later, it reappeared on New York site with likes of The Cut, Vulture, Grub Street, and Strategist as separate verticals.
Editor-in-chief David Haskell saw Curbed as both editorially and commercially beneficial to New York, filling a gap in New York and adding to their portfolio of podcasts, such as Nice Try!, which co-produced by New York and Curbed about mankind’s attempts at perfection – just kicked off its second season recently.
Haskell believes this new venture will draw advertisers and boost digital subscriptions since Curbed will now form part of Vox Media’s expanding stable of publications; However, there won’t be dedicated pages in their biweekly magazine; its articles will appear regularly online.
Curbed also celebrated its relaunch by hosting its inaugural live event: Curbed Summit, on May 1-2. The summit will focus on the future of cities and urban life and feature speakers from around the globe as well as panels and workshops covering everything from building sustainable communities to how best to scout for an apartment in Manhattan. For more details about this inaugural event, click here.
Real Estate
Last year when Vox Media acquired New York Magazine, it wasn’t clear what would become of Curbed–the 14-year-old real estate and urban design site owned by Vox. But now, as part of Vox’s acquisition, they have folded it into their magazine, placing it alongside The Cut and Vulture verticals in New York.
As part of their relaunch, Curbed.com has undergone a complete redesign and now includes access to Curbed’s national publication. At the same time, their New York City edition continues its tradition of covering real estate with humor and obsessiveness.
Curbed’s New York editors will aim to cover the city from a national viewpoint, taking part in what Curbed calls “a lively and urgent dialogue about what cities can become amid crises ranging from financial to existential.”
During the pandemic, the site ran a series on New York’s apartment market that garnered widespread interest, from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to President Obama’s housing chief. One piece by Lane Brown inspired widespread speculation on Twitter about whether landlords may be holding back apartments off-market to raise rents artificially; Brown used migration data–specifically change-of-address forms–to test this theory.
But the national Curbed’s relaunch comes when New York’s real estate market is experiencing slowing sales as landlords contend with competing offers from foreign buyers. Local journalists must use caution to balance local needs with those of new neighbors.
Design Hunting
Curbed’s national reach will expand by offering new areas of coverage that focus on New York and its people. “Cityscape” will amp up architecture criticism and development news; “Design Hunting” will expand home and interiors content led by New York magazine design editor Wendy Goodman while reporting regularly on the design world; while “Real Estate” will present regular roundups of New York’s premier listings.
Curbed will also benefit from the expertise of New York magazine’s shopping vertical, The Strategist, known for being at the forefront of home goods sourcing and design. Their team will curate an exclusive collection of goods curated specifically by them for Curbed.
No matter the expansion of these new sections, New York Magazine will remain at the core of the Curbed site. It will continue to feature local and national events, from lectures to panel discussions to parties and cocktail hours; its platform will highlight underrepresented voices while celebrating work across NYC to make it more equitable and vibrant.
Vox Media acquired New York Magazine along with Curbed in 2019; when merging the city outlets of Curbed with New York in April, furloughing workers in some locations and publishing at a reduced frequency. Now that Vox has taken ownership of Curbed, its website will host it as its vertical, alongside The Cut, Vulture, and Grub Street.
Curbed’s relaunch comes at a time of financial strain for Vox, including during the coronavirus pandemic that led to layoffs and pay cuts for many employees and strain on its other digital properties (Eater and Racked).
Corner Shop
Vox Media acquired New York Magazine thirteen months ago, and since then, Curbed — their real estate and design site — has found a new home within it as part of the magazine itself, just like The Cut, Vulture, and The Strategist do.
The site will feature four sections: “Design Hunting,” an extensive coverage from New York design editor Wendy Goodman that uncovers minimalist, maximalist, and all kinds of apartments and houses in NYC; “Cityscape,” featuring news analysis from Justin Davidson and Alissa Walker’s city editors; and “Corner Shop,” featuring all of The Strategist’s latest home goods offerings. In addition, “Reread,” Curbed’s newsletter highlighting their best writing from its archives, will also return.
Curbed’s New York team will remain focused on New York. Still, Curbed remains active nationally as its staff engages in lively dialogue about what cities can become in an age of rapid transformation.
Vox Media, owner of Vox, The Verge, and Grub Street, will close Curbed publications in Austin, Boston, and Chicago while continuing publication at reduced frequencies in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Editor-in-Chief Kelsey Keith announced she would step down last week, while on Tuesday, it was confirmed Curbed L.A. would cease publishing altogether. New York editorial teams in each city will move to the national version of the Curbed website, where editorial teams can form semiautonomous verticals similar to The Cut or Vulture.
