Vulture

About Vulture

Vulture is an American entertainment news website based in New York City and the standalone pop culture arm of New York magazine. Launched in April 2007 as an entertainment blog on nymag.com, it has grown into a full-fledged online magazine covering television, film, music, books, theater, comedy, art, and podcasts with a mix of news, criticism, and wit. Its tagline is "Devouring Culture." Since September 2019, when Vox Media acquired New York Media, Vulture has been a property of Vox Media.

Origins as a New York magazine blog

Vulture debuted in April 2007 as an entertainment blog on nymag.com, the website of New York magazine, under the name Culture Vulture. Founding editors Melissa Maerz and Dan Kois built the site's early identity around television and film news, with a particular emphasis on recaps of recent television episodes — a format that was just coming into its own as a staple of online entertainment writing. The blog gave the magazine's culture coverage a faster, looser venue than print, and it quickly attracted a readership of pop-culture obsessives who cared, as the site would later put it, disproportionately about great (and not so great) entertainment and the people who make it.

The timing was fortuitous. Vulture arrived just as television was entering a new golden age, with serialized dramas and ambitious comedies generating the kind of week-to-week conversation that recaps were built to serve. The recap became Vulture's signature form: detailed, funny, opinionated walk-throughs of episodes published within hours of broadcast, written for viewers who wanted to relive and dissect what they had just watched. The format turned appointment television into an ongoing online conversation and helped establish the site as a daily destination rather than an occasional read.

Evolution into a standalone magazine

As the blog's audience grew, Vulture outgrew the blog format. In 2010 the site was redesigned from a reverse-chronological blog into something resembling a full-fledged online magazine, with a homepage, sections, and feature packaging. In February 2012 it moved to its own independent domain, Vulture.com, completing the spin-off from the nymag.com mothership. The move signaled the site's ambition: to be a destination in its own right rather than a section of a magazine website, competing with the growing field of digital entertainment publications on its own terms.

The Vox Media acquisition

In September 2019, Vulture became a property of Vox Media when the company acquired New York Media, the parent of New York magazine. The deal brought Vulture, The Cut, Grub Street, Intelligencer, and The Strategist into Vox Media's portfolio alongside brands like Vox, The Verge, SB Nation, and Eater. For Vulture, the acquisition meant new corporate resources and a place within one of the largest digital media companies in the United States, while its editorial identity — the pop-culture voice of New York magazine — remained intact.

Coverage and critical voice

Vulture publishes news and criticism across high and low culture: television, movies, music, books, comedy, theater, art, and podcasts. The site is known for its TV recaps, a franchise that dates to its founding, as well as long-form criticism, celebrity interviews, and cultural analysis. Its voice is witty and opinionated, aimed at readers who take entertainment seriously without taking themselves too seriously. The site's critics and writers have built followings of their own, and Vulture pieces regularly drive broader cultural conversation — from awards-season predictions to definitive rankings and oral histories.

Over time the site's ambitions broadened well beyond recaps. Vulture now publishes the full apparatus of a culture magazine: reported features, critical essays, best-of lists, festival and awards coverage, and interviews with the actors, directors, musicians, and comedians shaping the moment. Its music coverage spans album reviews and industry analysis; its books coverage treats publishing as part of the entertainment economy; its comedy coverage, deepened by the Splitsider acquisition, follows stand-up and sketch as both art forms and businesses. The through-line is a belief that popular culture rewards close attention — and that writing about it can be as entertaining as the thing itself.

The Vulture Festival

In 2014, Vulture launched the Vulture Festival, an annual event bringing celebrities from across pop culture together with fans in New York City. The festival has featured actors, musicians, comedians, and creators in conversations, screenings, and performances, extending the brand beyond the page and into live experiences. The event reflects the site's position at the center of entertainment culture: it is both a chronicler of celebrity and a convenor of it, with the access and credibility to put stars on stage in front of its readers.

The Splitsider acquisition

In 2018, New York Media acquired the comedy news site Splitsider from The Awl Network and folded its coverage — and its editor, Megh Wright — into Vulture. Splitsider had been a respected niche publication covering comedy, and its absorption strengthened Vulture's comedy vertical at a time when stand-up, improv, and comedy television were central to pop culture. The move was part of a broader pattern of digital media consolidation, with larger publishers absorbing beloved independent sites to deepen their coverage.

Games and puzzles

Vulture has expanded into games as an audience engagement strategy. In January 2020 it began publishing daily 10x10 crosswords constructed by Malaika Handa and Stella Zawistowski, giving readers a daily habit beyond news. The site continued its push into games with the launch of Cinematrix, a movie trivia game, in 2024, followed by Telematrix, a television trivia game, in 2025. The games build on the success of puzzle franchises at other publications and reflect Vulture's understanding of its audience: pop-culture obsessives who enjoy testing what they know.

Editorial leadership

Neil Janowitz has served as Vulture's editorial director since 2015, guiding the site through the Vox Media acquisition and its expansion into events and games. The founding editors, Melissa Maerz and Dan Kois, set the template — smart, funny, deeply knowledgeable culture writing — that subsequent editors have maintained. The site's staff includes critics and reporters covering television, film, music, and books, operating within the larger New York magazine newsroom while maintaining Vulture's distinct voice and brand.

Place in entertainment media

Vulture occupies a distinctive position in entertainment journalism: more critical and writerly than the trade press, more news-driven than alt-weekly criticism, and more culturally authoritative than the average fan site. Its parentage — first New York magazine, now Vox Media — gives it institutional weight, while its tone keeps it accessible. In an era when entertainment coverage is fragmented across social platforms, newsletters, and podcasts, Vulture has remained a centralized destination for the kind of smart pop-culture writing that treats television finales and album releases as events worth serious attention.

The site's longevity is itself notable. Many digital entertainment publications launched in the 2000s have folded, been absorbed, or faded; Vulture survived the blog era, the social era, and the streaming wars by continually expanding what it covers while holding onto the voice that made it popular. As the pop-culture section of New York magazine, it benefits from the magazine's reporting resources and cultural authority; as a Vox Media brand, it sits within a portfolio built for the digital age. That combination — legacy credibility with digital-native instincts — is the foundation of its continued relevance.

Official website

Vulture publishes at vulture.com, where readers can find entertainment news, criticism, recaps, and the site's daily crossword and trivia games.