In New York City’s crowded market filled with digital news companies on missions to fix (and save) media, a new startup made waves today.
The venture is the brainchild of Joshua Topolsky, who previously founded The Verge and worked as the top digital editor at Bloomberg. However, Topolsky’s new digital publication, The Outline, is touting itself as a technology company in attempts to stand out in the haystack of online content that floods the internet every day.
Today, the company announced it raised a $5 million round led by RRE Ventures, whose previous investments include prominent media companies such as BuzzFeed, Business Insider and theSkimm. Advancit Capital, Boat Rocker Ventures and Nextview Ventures also participated in the round.
Topolsky plans on differentiating The Outline from other digital publications in that it will not rely on social media distribution to drive page views. Instead, the company wants to produce 15 to 20 pieces of content per day, using an amalgam of text, audio and video as storytelling mediums.These stories will range across three overarching topics — power, culture and the future. In this vein, Topolsky also wants The Outline to constantly experiment with new products, and hopefully crack digital media by placing an emphasis on the technology behind it.
The Outline has already brought in an all-star staff, including former journalists and creators from BuzzFeed News, Vice, Reddit and Mic.
The publication is slated to launch this fall. In the meantime, you can sign up for updates here.
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