The Financial Times writer Shannon Bond reports that Vox Media, the digital publishing company that operates Vox.com, Curbed, The Verge and other news sites, has bought the data science startup OpBandit in order to better track how its readers come to its content.
OpBandit analyses which features in a story cause more people to interact with the piece, either by sharing it in social media, commenting on it or simply clicking on the story and reading it. The acquisition is part of Vox Media’s larger effort to post content not just on its websites, but across a wide variety of social media platforms. From the company’s blog post announcing the deal:
Vox Media is integrating the OpBandit technology and algorithms into Chorus, our proprietary storytelling and audience platform as we also add founders Brian Muller and Blaine Sheldon to our Vox Product team. We have always been a technology-driven media company, and with the addition of OpBandit, we are strengthening our data science capabilities — in Chorus, across social platforms, and in Vox Creative — to best serve our audiences and brand partners.
Not everyone is impressed with the deal, however. Upon hearing the news, Rafat Ali, who founded paidContent and the travel news and data site Skift, tweeted that OpBandit won’t be that much of a game-changer.
FT failed to report: OpBandit is a failed startup doing headline A/B testing, Vox "bought" assets, such as they were.
http://t.co/SXsm9iQcXv
— Rafat Ali (@rafat) April 6, 2015
Vox smart to pick up OpBandit, Opbandit smart to find home, but FT bought PR bullshit.
— Rafat Ali (@rafat) April 6, 2015
If FT called one early customer like us, we would have told them the reality, what it promised & what it failed to do.
— Rafat Ali (@rafat) April 6, 2015
