TheSkimm's Co-Founders Carly Zakin And Danielle Weisberg Open Up About ‘Humbling And Exhilarating' Acquisition—and What The Next Chapter Looks Like For The Brand

Forbes

21-03-2025

Danielle Weisberg (left) and Carly Zakin
According to Carly Zakin, co-founder of theSkimm, when she and Danielle Weisberg started their company nearly 13 years ago, 'we never could have imagined that we'd be here today.'
For Zakin and Weisberg, 'here' is selling theSkimm to Ziff Davis' Everyday Health Group (EHG), an acquisition announced March 19. While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, theSkimm had raised a total funding of about $29 million from investors including Shonda Rhimas, Tyra Banks, Goldman Sachs and Google Ventures, according to Variety.
Speaking to me via email on March 20, Weisberg says that the acquisition of the company—which was built from the ground up from the couch of the New York City apartment Zakin and Weisberg, both former producers at NBC, once shared—is an emotional moment.
'When we launched theSkimm, we decided to do something terrifying—completely upend our lives to quit our jobs and start a newsletter, with very little money,' Weisberg tells me. 'Starting and building a company is not for the faint of heart, but we bet on ourselves and each other. So, reflecting on our whole journey, joining forces with EHG is both humbling and exhilarating. We're proud of what we've built and eager for what's next.'
Weisberg and Zakin at the 'Vanity Fair' Founders Fair. (Photo byfor ... [+] Vanity Fair)
theSkimm has grown from its daily newsletter—launched in 2012—to include other newsletters, like Skimm Money, Skimm Your Life and Skimm Well; the brand also has a podcast imprint, including the Zakin and Weisberg co-hosted '9 to 5ish with theSkimm' and also the 'WellPlayed' sports podcast.
As Substack newsletters continue to rise in popularity, theSkimm can boast it was founded a full five years before Substack launched in 2017. With its daily newsletter's distinct voice, theSkimm became the voice of the millennial generation, providing a 'skim' of the day's need-to-know news, with the extra 'm' added for a little extra oomph. Beyond being a media company, the team of Zakin and Weisberg—who are one of the rare business partnerships that have seemed to publicly eschew drama, deepening not just their partnership, but their friendship, too—consider themselves an audience company. That audience, which Variety reported is around 5 million millennial and Gen Z female readers, was on Zakin and Weisberg's minds when they made the decision to sell to EHG.
'Our primary goal has always been to serve our audience effectively, so whether or not our initial vision was to get us to this point, partnering with EHG aligns perfectly with our mission and offers immense growth opportunities that are going to serve our audience in even greater ways,' Zakin tells me.
Zakin and Weisberg will stay with theSkimm, focusing on guiding the company's strategic direction and 'supercharging' growth, Zakin says.
'We'll be able to lean further into categories that our audience cares about most, like comprehensive health and wellness content,' she continues. 'We'll be offering more in-depth resources to our readers, while staying true to our mission.'
Zakin and Weisberg. (Photo by Desiree Navarro/WireImage)
And true to that distinct theSkimm voice that readers have come to regard as their early morning wakeup call for over a decade, Weisberg assures me. She adds that the EHG partnership will only serve to enhance the company's resources, 'allowing us to delve deeper into topics our audience cares about without altering our unique tone.'
For its part, EHG said in a March 19 statement that theSkimm represented an opportunity to serve the fast-growing category of women's health and wellness. Nan Forte, EHG's executive vice president, said in a statement Wednesday that 'The creation of theSkimm marked a watershed moment in getting vital information to a highly engaged audience of female readers in an incredibly compelling format. We're excited to serve and further satiate the voracious appetite of theSkimm audience for trusted tips and insider information at this fast-growing intersection of women's wellness-based content, community and commerce.'
theSkimm—which prides itself on being so deeply audience-first that it has its own brand ambassadors, called Skimmbassadors—still wants to grow, Weisberg tells me. 'We recognized that collaborating with a partner like EHG could amplify our impact,' she says, pointing to health and wellness as areas 'that our audience deeply values.'
Weisberg. (Photo byfor Massachusetts Conference for Women 2019)
Zakin points to the hard work of theSkimm team and 'our community's unwavering support' as what got the company here. (The company's team numbers about 75, with no current plans to reduce that number, according to Axios, which broke news of the sale yesterday.) Weisberg assures me that the '9 to 5ish' podcast is sticking around, and Zakin echoes that, despite the acquisition, 'theSkimm will remain theSkimm, identifying EHG's commitment to keeping theSkimm true to itself while simultaneously amplifying it as 'one of the main reasons were were attracted to partnering with EHG.'
'theSkimm will feel very much the same to our audience, but they can anticipate enriched content, particularly in health and wellness,' Zakin says.
Zakin. (Photo byfor Pennsylvania Conference for Women 2019)
According to Axios, EHG's president Dan Stone said that theSkimm's target demographic 'is a core audience for us.' EHG is the health content arm of Ziff Davis, which Axios identified as one of the largest publicly-traded digital media companies; the outlet also called EHG one of the largest health and wellness media publishers in the country. In addition to now theSkimm, EHG also is home to several popular pregnancy and maternity companies, like What to Expect and BabyCenter. theSkimm has dipped toes into several social issues over the years, including health and wellness content targeted at women and mothers specifically, zooming in on the childcare crisis in the U.S. and reproducing content from the federal website on reproductive rights after it went dark earlier this year. theSkimm also offers the Skimm Parenting newsletter among its portfolio of newsletters.
As news broke of the sale, ever true to their commitment to their community first, Zakin and Weisberg took to Instagram to share a written message and a video announcing the 'significant milestone in theSkimm's journey,' they wrote. Speaking to their audience, they added, 'We are grateful for so many things. But nothing more than you—theSkimm's community who has supported us on this journey. We do not take your trust for granted.'
'Over the past decade plus, we have grown up—as people, as partners, and as businesswomen,' the message continued. 'And theSkimm has grown up, too.'
Co-founders of theSkimm and Spirit of Achievement Award recipients Danielle Weisberg (L) and Carly ... [+] Zakin attend the Spirit of Achievement Luncheon in New York City. (Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Getty Images)
Some may see it as the end of an era, but the company sees it as 'the next chapter and more of what you love,' they wrote on March 19. More access to need-to-know information. More of the brand's commitment to give women the ability to live smarter. More of what it's provided for nearly 13 years, but enhanced. Much has happened in Zakin and Weisberg's lives not just professionally but personally in 13 years. They're a long way from that tiny apartment and that couch. But at their core, they're still driven by the same mission, vision and values.
I asked Weisberg what she'd tell her younger self, who, with a friend and a dream, changed media: 'We knew that starting and building our own business would take us to places we didn't expect,' she says. 'But looking back, we'd tell our younger selves to trust their instincts, embrace the journey's challenges, and know that their dedication will lead to incredible opportunities like this one.'