Joshua Topolsky is an American entrepreneur and technology journalist who is also known as the co-founder and editor-in-chief of technology news network The Verge, and was also one of the creators of its parent company, Vox Media.
Early life
Joshua Ryan Topolsky was born on October 19, 1977, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Topolsky grew up in a Jewish family. Topolsky lives with his wife, Laura June, and their daughter, Zelda June Topolsky outside New York.
Career
Between 2008 and 2011, Topolsky was the editor-in-chief of the technology blog Engadget. Since 2009, Topolsky has been the technology correspondent for NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and then The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In March 2011, Topolsky left his position at Engadget.
Topolsky launched a new site after his departure from Engadget called This Is My Next, a temporary home for him and his former Engadget colleagues as they created a new technology network. Like Engadget, the website contained a wide variety of technology news, editorials, and reviews. At This Is My Next, Topolsky’s team included former Engadget contributors and editors including Nilay Patel, Paul Miller, Chris Ziegler, Joanna Stern, and others.
The site had reached 1 million visitors and 3.4 million page views by August 2011. The site had 3 million unique views monthly, and a total of 10 million page views by October 2011. Time called the prototype site exemplary in its Best Blogs of 2011.
In 2011, Topolsky also served as Vice President at Vox Media, Inc.
The Verge
Topolsky announced on Late Night on July 18, 2011, that he and his team were building a new permanent network called The Verge. Topolsky co-founded The Verge, along with Marty Moe and Tyler Bleszinski on April 1, 2011. The Verge contains the intersection of science, technology, art, and culture. The Verge gives in-depth reporting and long-form feature stories, product information, breaking news coverage, videos and images, and community content.
On November 1, 2011, Topolsky and Bleszinski launched The Verge, along with a publication of a new parent company: Vox Media and is powered by its Chorus platform, a media stack constructed for web-native news. According to the company, the site originated with 20 million page views from its 4 million unique visitors. During the time of Topolsky’s departure, Engadget had 14 million unique visitors.
Vox Media overall multiplied nearly 15 million of its unique visitors during the last half of 2012. The Verge had 12 former Engadget staffers the time of launch, working with Topolsky. In 2013, with former Wired editor Katie Drummond leading the effort, The Verge launched a new science section called Verge Science. In mid-2014, Patel replaced Topolsky as editor-in-chief. The Verge raised $12,000 on a seed round founding on June 1, 2014.
Topolsky shows in several of the audio and video podcasts that the site publishes as well as writing articles. Topolsky has shown on Fallon’s shows several times since the declaration of the site with products the site has evaluated that he showcases to the audience.
On July 24, 2014, The New York Times published that Topolsky would be departing The Verge on August 4, 2014, to engage in an editorial position at Bloomberg. The Times wrote, “Topolsky will expand and administer Bloomberg’s new ventures, which will include specific topic areas such as luxury and politics.” On July 10, 2015, The New York Times reported that Topolsky would be departing Bloomberg Business after disagreements with founder Michael Bloomberg over the direction of its digital media strategy. This results in a drastic redesign of Bloomberg Business web properties.
Topolsky started Tomorrow in April 2015, a weekly podcast concerning current trends in technology, culture, and news. Every episode of Tomorrow highlights co-host Ryan Houlihan and a particular guest, ranging from Matías Duarte, a Google designer to Topolsky’s wife. In 2016, Topolsky continued initial funding for a new digital media outlet. The company is titled Independent Media and on December 5, launched its first publication, The Outline.
Under the alias of Joshua Ryan, Topolsky was a well-known trance music DJ hose tracks were included on various gold certified compilation albums. Topolsky’s tracks have been authorized by Moonshine Music, Ministry of Sound, Palm Pictures, and Sony Music Entertainment (UK). In 1999, Fragrant Records released Topolsky’s single entitled Pistolwhip, which was re-released in 2001, on NuLife Recordings and ranked number 29 on the UK Singles Chart. Topolsky and his brother Eric Emm are well-known as the producing duo The Brothers. Topolsky and his brother Eric Emm have produced artists such as Professor Murder, !!!, and Radio 4.
As an authoritative voice in technology culture, Joshua Topolsky is featured in the New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, Fortune, Fast Company, and makes regular appearances on NPR, Fox News, Bloomberg TV, NBC, and CNN.