The Chicago Company Behind MuggleNet Wants To Be The Next Buzzfeed

By Kate Shepherd in News on Aug 20, 2015 6:20PM

With a reported 50 million page views, this Chicago viral media company is trying to be the next Buzzfeed. It's the gold standard of the viral web right now, for better or worse, and Buzzfeed's empire shows few signs of slowing down.

Avid Harry Potter fans will remember MuggleNet, the website LaPorte, Ind. native Emerson Spartz started when he was just 12 years old. Now 28, Spartz runs River North-based Spartz Media, which has been cracking the viral media code with two popular sites Dose.com and OMGFacts.com, according to a new profile in Crain's.

Unique monthly visitors to Dose.com and OMGFacts.com have increased from about 12 million a year ago to 50 million, Spartz told Crain's, which is getting pretty close to Gawker and Vox Media numbers.

"We're planning on building one of the largest media companies in the world," Spartz told Crain's.

Viral media giant Buzzfeed attracts about 75 million unique monthly visitors and Spartz hopes to increase his audience to 100 million by expanding his content into politics, sports, travel and technology. The company looks like it will have quite the uphill climb to get there.

Spartz Media currently has 40 employees and plans to expand to 50 by the end of the year.