Russell Simmons’ Global Grind Acquired by Interactive One

Geared toward African-Americans, Interactive One will morph Global Grind into a millennial channel

Russell Simmons
Getty Images

Russell Simmons‘ pop culture site GlobalGrind.com was acquired by Interactive One, the two companies announced Thursday.

GlobalGrind will anchor a new Millennials channel for Interactive One (iOne), made up of over a dozen sites that target the younger demographic. Over the last year, iOne has collectively grown 145 percent to 33 million unique visitors per month.

The two companies formed a partnership in the summer of 2013. Since then, GlobalGrind has grown 60 percent, spiking from 2.5 million unique visitors per month to 4.1 million this month.

“I have been very proud of the care Interactive One has given my baby under our partnership to date, and am extremely excited to be contributing my points of view on trends and issues of utmost importance within the community, particularly social justice,” Simmons said. “GlobalGrind will continue to be a pop culture tastemaker and voice for the hip-hop generation.”

“Having worked closely with Alfred, Tom and the entire Interactive One family, I look forward to this new chapter as we collectively look to expand iOne’s coverage in the areas that matter most to our audience, and to do so while working closely with our new colleagues across the organization,” Global Grind co-president Michael Skolnik said. Skolnik will stay on board the new Global Grind as editor-in-chief.

“Having had the opportunity to already work closely with the GlobalGrind team during the last two years, we have a very clear understanding of how to take this wonderful brand to the next level while holding on to the aspects that have made it the powerhouse it is today with its Millennial audience,” iOne President Tom Newman said. “GlobalGrind, in addition to bolstering our presence in the digital media space, nicely complements our flagship properties, including HelloBeautiful, TheUrbanDaily and NewsOne, with more to come in 2015.”

Comments