Marc Ecko just got a ginormous pat on the pack in the form of a $21 million dollar investment from the Hearst Corporation for his lovechild, Complex Media. Hearst, who owns media giants like Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, ESPN, and Buzzfeed, is one of the nation’s largest diversified media and information companies and has selected Complex Media as its next great investment.

Always trying to capture what’s cool and next, Complex stood out to Hearst as one to watch because of their extremely high engagement and viral video content. Complex, one of the top 10 publishers in the U.S. when it comes to social interaction on channels like Facebook and YouTube, generates some of the strongest engagement metrics among leading digital video and content brands.

“Video is critical to the future of Hearst, and Complex is excelling in that space,” Hearst Entertainment Syndication Co-President and Hearst Digital Studios President Neeraj Khemlani says. “We are constantly looking to work with businesses backed by a strong brand with talented content creators and a large, well-defined audience—Complex checks all of those boxes.

The multimillion dollar investment will go towards continuing to increase the video content Complex is known and loved for but you also have to ask, what does Hearst get out of it? Will creativity be stifled by the big box corporation or will Complex be able to keep its creative freedom?  What is to be commended is Complex’s ability to balance business savvy and creative, engaging content – we’ve seen many other magazines like Trace, Giant, and Suede die due to lack of funding and fiscal vision.  Congrats to Marc Ecko for keeping the Complex dream alive and forever evolving!