Whether you read The Verge or not, their current rebranding/redesign effort is a really interesting read for anyone who lives on the internet.
As they go through the process of re-evaluating everything about their business, they are posting regular updates that focus on details of how their business works. Detailed web traffic reports and trends. Financial models, and how they have changed over the last 5 years. What is mission statement? What do their customers want, and where do they want it?
This series of articles is really laying bare the entire machine of a modern web property, and exposing all of the data for public scrutiny.
And, what they build from this complete renovation should be interesting to see.
If you live or work on the web, this is a series you should be reading.