BDG Media, Inc.

Who owns BDG Media?
BDG is privately held. Founder and CEO Bryan Goldberg controls the company alongside venture investors including General Catalyst, Social Capital, Saban Capital Group and Medici Capital Partners.

Is BDG Media publicly traded?
No. It planned a SPAC listing in 2021 valuing it around $600 million, but the deal was abandoned and the company remains private.

What brands does BDG own?
Active titles include Bustle, Elite Daily, NYLON, W Magazine, Inverse, Romper, Scary Mommy and The Zoe Report. Gawker, Mic, Input and Fatherly are owned but dormant or operating minimally.

When was BDG founded?
Bryan Goldberg founded Bustle in August 2013. The holding company adopted the name Bustle Digital Group in 2017 and rebranded as BDG in 2021.

Does BDG still own Gawker?
Yes, BDG retains the Gawker assets acquired for $1.35 million in 2018. It relaunched the site in 2021 and shut it down again in February 2023 to prioritize better-monetizing properties.

How profitable is BDG?
BDG projected roughly $130 million in 2025 revenue at about a 10 percent profit margin, according to an October 2025 Axios report, following years of restructuring toward events and membership revenue.

Bryan Goldberg co-founded Bleacher Report in 2005 and sold it to Turner Broadcasting in 2012 for a reported $175 million. With that credibility and $6.5 million in seed and Series A funding, he launched Bustle in August 2013 as a general-interest site for millennial women. Bustle grew fast on a mix of service journalism, entertainment and politics, reaching a reported 50 million monthly readers by 2016.

The acquisition era began in April 2017 when DMG Media sold Elite Daily to what had just been renamed Bustle Digital Group. Deal-making accelerated: BDG bought the dormant Gawker.com domain in a 2018 bankruptcy auction for $1.35 million, acquired Flavorpill in August 2018, picked up Mic for a reported $5 million in November 2018, then added The Outline and The Zoe Report in 2019 and NYLON in June 2019. Input, a tech site it launched in 2020, and Inverse, acquired in 2019, built out its tech coverage. In 2021 it bought Some Spider Studios for a reported $150 million, adding parenting brands Scary Mommy, Fatherly and The Dad, and relaunched Gawker that July.

The company rebranded to BDG in May 2021 ahead of a planned SPAC listing valuing it around $600 million. The deal never happened, and a CVC Capital Partners takeover exploration in 2022 also failed to close. Retrenchment followed: BDG shut Gawker again in February 2023, shelved Input and Fatherly, and ran repeated layoffs that halved its editorial union. In 2023 it also assumed ownership of W Magazine from Condé Nast.

A growth investment from Medici Capital Partners closed in September 2024, adding to earlier backing from General Catalyst, Social Capital, Saban Capital Group and others. The 2025 strategy centered on Nylon's membership model, live events and influencer-driven content, which Goldberg credited for the company's move toward record profitability. An October 2025 Axios report put expected 2025 revenue near $130 million.

BDG's public record is dominated by labor conflict. The Writers Guild of America East has publicly criticized multiple layoff rounds since 2022, including roughly 40 union members cut with the 2023 Gawker shutdown. The Gawker closure drew broad industry criticism given Goldberg's stated ambitions to revive the brand. The company also faced scrutiny over a 2023 incident in which Bustle published and retracted AI-assisted articles, part of an industry-wide debate on automated content. Its 2021 SPAC failure left investors without a planned exit.