Bustle Digital Group — the parent company of brands like Bustle, Mic, Elite Daily, and Romper — has acquired The Outline. Launched in 2016 as an alternative media company, The Outline had raised $10 million in funding at a $21 million valuation as according to Pitchbook. Unfortunately, The Outline laid off all staff writers last year reported Fast Company. After The Outline laid off its staff writers, it switched to a freelancer model.
The Outline will continue to operate under the same brand going forward. The Outline founder Joshua Topolsky, CTO Ivar Vong, and all of the other employees will continue working for the company. Topolsky previously served as the editor-in-chief at Engadget followed by VP of Vox Media/editor-in-chief at The Verge, and the chief digital content officer at Bloomberg LP.
Bryan Goldberg is the founder and CEO of Bustle Digital Group and he is also known as one of the co-founders of Bleacher Report (acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in August 2012 for $175 million). The terms of The Outline deal were undisclosed.
Goldberg told Recode that the plan is to use The Outline’s custom publishing platform built across his portfolio of sites to attract advertisers looking for unique ways to market their brands. Topolsky is also going to launch a technology site called the Input.
“The hard thing for Josh is that the scale hasn’t been there,” said Goldberg in the Recode interview. “It got to the point where he doesn’t have the scale behind it, and we do.”
Bustle Digital Group raised more than $80 million in funding and spent $1.35 million buying the Gawker.com domain name — which used to be a major celebrity-focused media company until the high-profile lawsuit with Hulk Hogan happened. And the deal for Mic was reportedly valued at $5 million.
