Considering how high The Verge set the bar for blog launches, this is underwhelming for a blog launch in 2014. Both the design and functionality are minor improvements from a basic Wordpress theme. (of course, content is king, so that might not be relevant in the long run)

Their LiveFyre SSO implementation has significant issues. (Remember your password, because you are not reseting it. Also, profile pictures flat-out don't show.)

Worst of all, there's a significant bug with their custom font on Chrome (both PC and Mac): the fonts load after the page loads, causing a brief adjustment every time you open a page that's very annoying.