• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 11, 2013

Now we know what Vox Media was thinking when it raised upwards of $34 million, last month. The media company -- founded by former AOL executive Jim Bankoff -- just acquired Curbed.com L.L.C. for a reported $30 million.

With Curbed -- which was founded by former Gawker editor Lockhart Steele in 2004 -- Vox is getting real estate blog Curbed.com, the foodie-focused Eater.com, and the retail-related Racked.com.

In a statement, Bankoff lauded the three properties -- which reach 32 markets domestically, as well as in Canada -- for using “a thoroughly modern approach to cater to young, highly affluent adult audiences and the marketers who seek to reach them.”

Vox Media already includes the sports-centric blog network SB Nation, technology news hub The Verge, and gaming site Polygon -- which together reach a monthly audience of nearly 57 million readers, the company says. (According to Quantcast, Vox properties reach about 41 million unique users stateside on a monthly basis.)

Branding experts consider the sites within the Curbed network as particularly advertiser-friendly, because of their tame subject matter and strong editorial presence.  

“I would suggest that an advertiser who wants to maintain a totally squeaky-clean image select sites accordingly … and there are certainly many of them including … Curbed [and] Eater,” Irma Zandl, principal of The Zandl Group, told Online Media Daily earlier this year.

Steele and the entire Curbed team are expected to continue doing what they were doing prior to the merger. In particular, Steele will stay on as editor in chief of the three Curbed titles.

Curbed's other principal founders -- including Josh Albertson, Alexis Juneja, and Eliot Shepard -- are all expected to play “significant roles” within the merged company, according to a Vox spokesperson.

Going forward, Steele is also expected to help Vox develop new editorial opportunities and properties.

To date, Vox has raised roughly $80 million from Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Allen & Company.

At AOL, where Bankoff spent less than a year, he was responsible for building brands and driving audience metrics in support of the company's still-emerging ad-supported business model.

Prior to AOL, Bankoff served as AT&T’s vice president of marketing, where he worked on the Cingular brand before it was rechristened AT&T. Overseeing a marketing budget of $185 million, he was involved in a number of experimental marketing programs, including the sponsorship of an online battle of the bands on YouTube.