Joe (website)


JOE is a distributed social media publisher aimed at young people in Ireland and the UK, with over 2 million unique visitors per month. It is owned by Maximum Media. The original website www.joe.ie was founded by Irish entrepreneur Niall McGarry. Her.ie is a related website aimed at young women in Ireland. HerFamily.ie also forms part of the group.

JOE.ie

The site, which uses clickbait style story headlines, was founded in 2010 and it was nominated for a Golden Spider Award in the One to Watch category in its first year and in the News and Entertainment category in 2013. Showbiz website Goss.ie described it as "more influential" than traditional media in August 2016. It is edited by Paddy McKenna. The site's android app has had over 50,000 installs with a ratio of 2:1 for 5 star reviews vs 1 star reviews. In November 2016, The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland upheld a complaint about an ad for Sprite featured on the site.

SportsJOE.ie

SportsJOE.ie was launched in 2014, as an offshoot of JOE.ie, offering "in-depth analysis". Daily Telegraph and Sunday Independent sports columnist Dion Fanning moved to the site in 2015.

JOE.co.uk

The millennial site was launched in September 2015 with Tony Barrett of The Times and former footballer Ledley King among the contributors.
BBC political researcher Joey D'Urso cited content from Joe.co.uk, such as a video superimposing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's face onto that of the rapper Stormzy while the leader appears "to rap a list of policies", as an example of viral social media content which helped Labour's standing in the 2017 general election, but which was not directly funded by the party itself.
In 2018 the company hired Brian Whelan from Channel 4 News to oversee video operations and the BBC's Simon Clancy to run their podcast shows.
In 2020 JOE won Content Creator of the Year award by The Drum's online media awards for its viral videos of mashing up politicians words to fit a song.