Melissa Bell has been the Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Media since September 2024. Bell co-founded Vox.com in 2014 and played a key role in developing Vox’s distinctive content style that emphasizes understanding complex topics, commonly known as explainer journalism. Under her leadership, Vox also produced an array of multiplatform news products, including the acclaimed Today, Explained podcast and Netflix’s Explained television series.
Melissa Bell has been the Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Media since September 2024. Bell co-founded Vox.com in 2014 and played a key role in developing Vox’s distinctive content style that emphasizes understanding complex topics, commonly known as explainer journalism. Under her leadership, Vox also produced an array of multiplatform news products, including the acclaimed Today, Explained podcast and Netflix’s Explained television series.
In 2016, Bell became publisher of Vox’s parent company Vox Media, overseeing the company’s editorial publications, including Eater, The Verge and SB Nation. She played a critical role in shepherding Vox Media’s merger with New York Magazine and its premium brands, including Vulture, The Cut and The Strategist. The merger brought together 13 distinct newsrooms that collectively have earned 50+ National Magazine Awards, 20 James Beard Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and a News & Documentary Emmy.
She also helped with the acquisition of Group Nine’s portfolio of brands, including The Dodo, NowThis, and Thrillist, growing Vox Media to a top 10 US media company by audience. Under her leadership, Vox Media’s platforms reached up to 130 million people across its platforms each month, gained 350 million social media followers, and earned 6 billion monthly video views and 36 million monthly podcast downloads. Fast Company has named Vox Media as one of the world’s “most innovative” media companies.
Prior to founding Vox, Bell worked as the Director of Platforms for The Washington Post, where she restructured the outlet’s digital strategy and increased overall traffic. At The Post, she also wrote a weekly consumer technology column. Bell got her start in journalism and building news organizations as a founding Features Editor for Mint, which rose to become the second-largest business paper in India.
After nearly a decade, Bell stepped away in 2023 from daily management at Vox Media to serve as a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, where she studied the impact of news avoidance on local journalism in the United States.
