Vice Media


Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group ; Vice TV ; Virtue ; and Vice Digital. It was cited as the largest independent youth media company in the world, with 35 offices.
The original Vice magazine was founded and based in Montreal and co-founded by Suroosh Alvi, Shane Smith, and Gavin McInnes. Developed from the magazine, Vice Media expanded primarily into youth and young adult-focused digital media. This included online content verticals and related web series, a news division, a film production studio, and a record label, among other properties. Vice re-located to New York City in 2001.
Vice News was known for broadcasting news programs on HBO; including the Emmy-winning weekly self-titled documentary series, which premiered in April 2013, and features segments on global issues hosted by co-founders Smith and Alvi, and a rotating cast of correspondents. A spin-off, Vice News Tonight, premiered 10 October 2016 and showcased a nightly roundup of global news, technology, the environment, economics, and pop culture while eschewing traditional news anchors.
On 10 June 2019, HBO announced Vice News Tonight's cancellation, in addition to ending relations with Vice Media, after a seven-year partnership. In August 2019, it was reported that the company was laying off staff as part of a shift towards news that would involve merging Viceland and Vice News. In April 2023, it was announced that Vice Media was restructuring and downsizing its news division. A month later, Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and agreed to be acquired by a consortium led by Fortress Investment Group for $350million in June.
In February 2024, CEO Bruce Dixon announced additional layoffs and that Vice.com would cease publishing content. In July 2025, Vice published new content. Vice has since partnered with other media companies, such as Savage Ventures, to distribute its content.

History

Founding and early years (1994–2005)

Voice was founded by Alix Laurent of Interimages Communications in October 1994, with Suroosh Alvi as editor and Gavin McInnes as assistant editor, with Shane Smith joining the magazine's staff later. The magazine focused on Montreal's alternative cultural scene, to compete with the already established Montreal Mirror. Alvi, McInnes and Smith bought out the publisher and changed the magazine's name to Vice in 1996.
As the magazine became more successful, the company received an investment of $4 million by Canadian investor Richard Szalwinski and Vice relocated to New York City in 1999. In 2001, the co-founders bought Vice back and moved to new offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Digital expansion (2006–2011)

In 2006, on the advice of creative director Spike Jonze, Vice began expanding into digital video, launching new video service VBS.tv as a joint venture with MTV Networks. VBS gained a fan base with shows like The Vice Guide To Travel, Epicly Later'd, Toxic and Hamilton's Pharmacopeia.
In 2007, Vice Media began expanding its digital video operation, launching new channels, such as Motherboard, Noisey, and The Creators Project, an arts/technology site founded in partnership with Intel. Vice Media would later launch sites around electronic music culture, global news, food and sports. Additionally, Vice Media launched Virtue Worldwide, a creative services agency, to expand their capabilities for work around their platforms. During this time, Santiago Stelley was the director of content of VBS.tv and creative director of Vice Media.
In January 2008, co-founder Gavin McInnes left Vice Media due to "creative differences" with the company, and founded the website streetcarnage.com. He later co-founded Rooster, an advertising agency, and became a far-right activist, founding the Proud Boys.
According to Columbia Journalism Review, Vice has altered shots during the editing process in pursuit of more entertaining or impressive scenes. In a 2011 documentary on Libya, a voiceover from the reporter claims that he had gone to the frontlines amidst an offensive, while in contrast a source claims the reporter did not make the trip, with only a cameraman going there.

Further expansion (2012–2017)

In 2012, Vice Media continued to expand its coverage focused around news and current events.
With the end of VBS.tv, Vice began releasing films like UK's Scariest Debt Collector, Swansea Love Story, World's Scariest Drug and Inside the Superhuman World of the Iceman through their main website and YouTube channel, as well as new series like Slutever, Fringes, Love Industry and High Society.
In mid-August 2013, Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox invested US$70 million in Vice Media, resulting in a 5% stake. Following the announcement, Smith explained: "We have set ourselves up to build a global platform but we have maintained control." In 2013, Vice Media premiered a new 30-minute news program for HBO titled Vice, executive produced by Bill Maher. In 2014, the second season of the show won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special in the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. In 2014, Vice Media launched its news channel, Vice News, which almost immediately gained global attention for its coverage of protests and conflict in Ukraine and Venezuela. As of October 2014, the editor of BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat claimed the BBC was "playing catch-up" to Vice News.
Vice Media has routinely advocated for their "immersionist" brand of journalism in the pursuit of more authentic and interesting stories. Their founders and editors have regularly garnered controversy from the likes of The New York Times David Carr, who bristled in an exchange with Shane Smith in the 2011 documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times. In a 2014 Time column, Carr said that Vice had since grown into a strong news entity. In August 2014, Carr published a New York Times column further reversing his earlier criticism of Vice, saying: "Being the crusty old-media scold felt good at the time, but recent events suggest that Vice is deadly serious about doing real news that people, yes, even young people, will actually watch."
On 2 July 2014, Vice Media announced that it would be relocating into a warehouse space in Williamsburg that had been occupied by the independent arts spaces and concert venues 285 Kent, Death by Audio and Glasslands, among others. Vice and the building property owners facilitated the clearance of the building and the displacement of the existing creative tenants. Vice spent US$20 million to renovate the building as part of an eight-year lease, facilitating the establishment of new production facilities with full broadcast capabilities, and received an offer of US$6.5 million in tax credits from New York state's Empire State Development. In August 2014, A&E Networks, a television group jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation, made a US$250-million investment in Vice Media for an ownership stake of 10%. In November and December 2015, Disney made two additional individual investments of US$200 million totalling $400 million.
On 26 March 2015, HBO announced it would renew its contract to broadcast the weekly Vice documentary series for four years, while expanding the annual broadcast schedule from 14 to nearly 30 episodes. The network also announced Vice would be launching a nightly news program. The show, entitled Vice News Tonight, premiered on 10 October 2016 and was planned to run 48 weeks each year, featuring pre-edited video and graphics segments covering global news, technology, the environment, economics and pop culture, while eschewing the use of live TV anchors. In November 2015, Vice and A&E Networks announced Viceland, a then-upcoming cable network that would feature Vice-produced content.
On 14 March 2017, Vice announced an expanded original programming deal with Snap Inc. The new deal built on Vice's previous deal to serve as a 2015 global launch partner on the Snapchat Discover platform. The first program planned under the new deal was Hungry Hearts with Action Bronson, starring the titular rapper. That same month, Vice announced a wide range of content deals which would make its programming available in more than 80 territories by the end of 2017.
In June 2017, Vice secured a $450 million investment from private-equity firm TPG Capital to increase spending on scripted programming and ongoing international expansion. As a result of the deal, Vice Media was valued at $5.7 billion. In September 2018, Disney wrote down its investment in Vice by $157 million. Disney acquired Fox's stake in Vice when its acquisition of 21st Century Fox completed in March 2019.
On 23 December 2017, The New York Times reported that there had been four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees. In addition, over 20 other women stated that they had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct, including unwanted kisses, groping, lewd remarks and propositions for sex at the company. In a statement provided to The New York Times, Vice co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi said, "from the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive."
In January 2018, Vice's COO/CFO Sarah Broderick sent a memo to staff on 2 January 2018 announcing President Creighton had volunteered to go on temporary leave whilst a new investigation into a $135,000 settlement from a case the company paid in 2016 to a former employee who alleged she was fired after turning him down, and the suspension of Mike Germano, who had served as chief digital officer. Germano founded Carrot Creative, which was acquired by Vice in 2013; he was accused of pulling a former colleague onto his lap at a company party, as well as telling his former strategist Amanda Rue he originally did not want to hire her "because he wanted to have sex with her." Vice has also been criticized by current and former employees for featuring work by Terry Richardson, a photographer facing accusations of sexual abuse by multiple models. In another documentary, a former female employee covering a story about sex workers in a developing country said Vice attempted to "sensationalize and exploit" the women depicted. In one occasion, producers requested her to go undercover as a prostitute, which she refused. She also remarks being oriented to swear more while on camera.