What Is Robinhood’s Latest Venture “Sherwood” All About?

On January 17, Robinhood Markets Inc., the U.S.-based retail trading platform, announced its newly formed media-focused subsidiary called Sherwood Media, LLC. The name is taken from the folklore surrounding Robin Hood, who being an outcast, used to live in the forest of “Sherwood”. The new media organization would serve as a source for news and information pertaining to financial markets, economics, business and technology; as well as the culture of money.

Robinhood’s Foray Into Media

The company will be an extension of Robinhood’s brand and a means of attracting new customers, building on the success of Robinhood’s daily markets and business newsletter, Snacks. Headed by Joshua Topolsky, the founder and former Editor-in-chief of The Verge, the publication will soon become the new home of Snacks as well as other new products that will cover finance & money holistically; along with associated subjects including cryptocurrency, technology, and geopolitics. Topolsky was previously involved in the establishment of the parent business Vox Media and served as the Chief Digital Content Officer at Bloomberg before leaving for Sherwood.

While speaking on the new development, Topolsky was quoted as saying:

The next generation looks at money and the markets through an entirely new lens, they live at a different speed — and they want something more substantive in their diet.

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Joining in as the editor-in-chief and president of Sherwood Media, Topolsky further stated that he’s ecstatic to be a member of a team that has the unique opportunity, position, and perspective to construct a “news organization for the next wave”. And, while Robinhood will provide funding to assist the establishment of the outlet, the new president at Sherwood intends to develop business opportunities for the editorial items he is developing.

How Does Robinhood Benefit?

Beginning this year, Topolsky intends to fill dozens of open positions at the new company, including those for reporters, editors and content makers for social media. He plans to introduce new email items across various business and finance verticals in addition to Snacks. According to him, creating specialized newsletters on well-known corporations like Tesla and Disney would be one of his key initiatives to being with.

In 2019, Robinhood took its first step into the media sector when it acquired MarketSnacks, a startup that produced podcasts & newsletters and was home to Robinhood’s current Snacks newsletter. Before Sherwood was established, Snacks did not report news about Robinhood in order to prevent any real or perceived conflict of interest. However, this time according to Topolsky,  Sherwood would cover its parent trading platform “where and when it makes sense” along with mandatory disclosures. With media being utilized as a potent customer acquisition and branding strategy, Robinhood looks to harness the power of Sherwood in capturing a larger market presence.

As things stand, the share price of Robinhood (HOOD) is currently trading at around $9.41, which represents a 1% uptick in the day, in contrast to its 11% gain in the past five days.

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