Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. As of April 2024, Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Viceland); Virtue (an agency offering creative services); and Vice Digital (digital content).[3] 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,[9] 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[10] 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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13][14][15] 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.[16]
In February of 2024, Vice's former CEO Bruce Dixon announced additional layoffs and that Vice.com would cease publishing content.[17][18] In July 2025, Vice published new content.[19] Vice has since partnered with other media companies, such as Savage Ventures, to distribute its content.
History
Founding and early years (1994–2005)
Voice (later Voices of Montreal) 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. It initially focused on drug culture, skateboarding, art, music, and trends.[20][9][21][22][23] The magazine focused on Montreal's alternative cultural scene, to compete with the already established Montreal Mirror
Key business properties
Magazine
Vice began as a counterculture print magazine founded in 1996 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, when Suroosh Alvi, Gavin McInnes and Shane Smith bought its predecessor, Voice of Montreal.[20][9][89]
As of April 2017, the magazine's editor-in-chief was Ellis Jones.[90][91] The magazine switched to a quarterly publication schedule in 2018, though issues still generally explored a single theme.[92]
Other business operations
Vice Media holds a range of online and offline properties. Digital channels include:
Former business operations
- Launch refers to year where the first Vice-produced video was released on their respective YouTube channels.
- In 2014, Vice Media took over the YouTube-funded channel The NOC, which was launched in 2012.
Global expansion
Vice Media has steadily acquired media properties and firms and closed deals in order to expand its global operations.
In June 2014, it was reported that Time Warner was negotiating to acquire up to a 40% stake in Vice Media;[150] among the company's plans were to give Vice Media control over the programming of HLN—a spin-off network of CNN which had recently struggled in its attempts to re-focus itself as a younger-skewing, social media-oriented news service.
Unionization
On 7 August 2015, the roughly 70-person writing staff of Vice Media US voted to unionize, joining the Writers Guild of America, East. Vice management quickly recognized the union. The successful union drive followed similar efforts at Salon, Gawker and The Guardian.[188][189]
Then, in September 2017, employees and freelancers who "work on video content for Vice.com, cable channel Viceland, and Vice programming on HBO" unionized through Writers Guild of America, East and the Motion Pictures Editors Guild.[190] At the time, a leader from one of the unions said: "We have built a constructive relationship with Vice management and applaud the company for continuing to respect the right of its employees to engage in collective bargaining."[191]
On 2 May 2017, Vice Media ratified a three-year collective bargaining agreement with 170 employees of the company's Canadian division who had joined the Canadian Media Guild union in 2016.[192]
Office expansion in Brooklyn
In July 2014, Vice Media announced it would be moving its headquarters to a new building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where their New York office had been since 1999. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, the move would allow them to double their current office size and hire about 500 new employees.[198]
Following this announcement, the two music venues occupying the building, Glasslands Gallery and Death By Audio, soon announced the news they would be closing. Following the announcement from Glasslands management in October 2014 that the arts venue would close at the end of 2014, thereby making it the third Williamsburg music space to close through Vice Media's expansion—alongside 285 Kent and Death By Audio—Big Shot Magazine claimed that the Brooklyn music community had received a "proverbial kick in the groin."[199]
After a series of articles covering the venues' eviction, BrooklynVegan reported on the deals that led to Vice Media moving into the new office, including terms buying out tenants and covering past overdue rent, that contradicted some press around the renovation of the building and Vice Media's dealings with the current tenants. Regardless, as the article puts it, "The concept of 'Vice vs. DIY' in Williamsburg is officially a thing."[200]
See also
- BuzzFeed, Inc.
- Mashable
- Mic (media company)
- TMZ
External links
References
- Todd Spangler. Vice Media Taps NBCU Veteran Adam Stotsky as CEO; Former Chief Exec Bruce Dixon Exits Variety, retrieved 26 December 2025^
- What Vice's Stunning Financials Tell Us About the Future of Media Forbes, retrieved 26 December 2020^
- Diana Lodderhose. Vice Media Unveils New Creative Structure For Global Production Biz; Elevates Jamie Hall & Danny Gabai To Co-Presidents Of Newly-Formed Vice Studios Group