Hype, sex appeal and the promise of young audiences turned Shane Smith’s wild brainchild into one of the hottest digital brands on the planet. Then came scandal and skepticism. Now it’s up to Nancy Dubuc, the new CEO, to clean up the $5.7 billion media company’s culture and balance sheet as she prepares to launch a nightly live show on Viceland and as Vice’s weekly HBO show is expected to end.
A hasty CEO exit has put the spotlight on A+E Networks as a symbol of the business trends that are troubling the pay-TV arena.
Former A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc has been named CEO of Vice Media, the company said today. Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith will shift to a new role as executive chairman. The news comes a day after Dubuc announced her exit after nearly 20 years from A+E Networks. The transition comes as Vice has experienced some growing pains and some behind-the-scenes tumult amid allegations of questionable conduct among senior executives at the hard-charging digital content firm.
Elizabeth Rose, a former female employee of Vice Media has alleged in a lawsuit filed today that the company discriminates against female employees, systemically and intentionally paying them less than their male counterparts.
After placing Mike Germano on leave weeks ago, Vice said he would not return. Two women at the company had accused him of inappropriate behavior.
Exclusives
Vice is looking for a new Canadian roost for its Viceland cable network. The bootstrapping media company and the Canadian cable distributor have ended a joint venture in a Vice production studio and Viceland.
Vice Media has suspended President Andrew Creighton and Chief Digital Officer Mike Germano following a New York Times report last month detailing sexual harassment allegations against them.
A media company built on subversion and outlandishness was unable to create “a safe and inclusive workplace” for women, two of its founders acknowledge.
For some of the publishers chasin the broadest scale, maybe. A new study from the Reuters Institute examines the strengths and weaknesses of seven globally ambitious news companies — Brut, Business Insider, De Correspondent, HuffPost, Mashable, Quartz, and Vice.
Vice Media fired three employees on Thursday amid a probe into sexual harassment and improper workplace conduct, according to an internal memo. Vice did not name the employees.
The cuts, which are impacting about 2% of Vice Media’s 3,000 person staff, comes as the company grows its video operations internationally.
Vice Media’s valuation is now up to $5.7 billion, CEO Shane Smith told CNBC, after his company snagged a $450 million investment from asset firm TPG.
NBCUniversal Telemundo has signed a new exclusive content partnership with Vice Media. The partnership entails co-production of original documentary segments for Telemundo News and a one-hour hosted weekly show for Universo. Both programs are expected to debut in the fall.
Vice Media is launching a new online vertical that won’t just cover important issues, but also offer ways to support them. Called Vice Impact, the platform will offer up editorial that details social, economic and environmental issues. Then through partnerships with a number of nonprofits, Impact will provide the audience with options for how to take action.
Vice Media Chooses Octopus NRCS
Vice Media, which has built its brand for more than two decades around news, documentaries and other nonfiction fare, is spreading its wings into scripted entertainment. The Brooklyn-based media company has secured a pact with Blackpills, a French digital media studio startup, for a slate of original short-form scripted content that will be exclusively distributed on Vice’s video-focused digital hub, video.vice.com.
Snapchat continues to beef up its lineup of premium short-form shows: Snap Inc. and Vice Media have struck an expanded deal under which Vice will produce shows exclusively for Snapchat. The first show under deal is Hungry Hearts with Action Bronson, a dating series hosted by rapper-chef Action Bronson (whose real name is Arian Asllani) developed by Viceland. It will debut later this year.
Organized labor has begun a major push to unionize writers, producers and on-air talent who work on Vice Media’s video and TV programming, after successfully organizing digital newsrooms in recent years.
The more ardent tech business followers won’t be surprised by any of these, but Snap Inc., Vice Media, Spotify, Airbnb and Uber are among those expected to have their big moments next year.
Vice Media has promoted James Rosenstock to the role of president of Viceland International, where he will oversee the global TV networks, while continuing to execute new strategic international partnerships to bring Vice content to new territories.
A ton of hype preceded Vice’s nightly news premiere on Monday, but not everyone is buying in. New York Times TV reviewer Mike Hale unfavorably compared the debut to even the most “hackneyed, shallow and formulaic” network newscasts, and blasted the new HBO offering as “mostly a canned, feature-heavy affair presenting news that was a day old or more.”
Several digital media companies have expressed interest in TV, but they’re all far behind Vice Media so far.
Disney has doubled its stake in Vice Media to $400 million, or about 10% of the company, sources familiar with the company confirm. The deal now values Vice above $4 billion.
Vice’s Shane Smith has promised a radical reinvention of TV advertising with the launch of his new channel Viceland early next year, a partnership with A+E Networks. What that means remains highly unclear to marketers, who badly want Vice’s millennial male audience but have few guarantees that its hazy ad plans will work.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that companies like BuzzFeed, Vice Media and Huffington Post are known as “new media” specialists. Now, they’re venturing aggressively into a decidedly old-media stronghold: television. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is scouting out several companies in the world of new media for potential deals as the cable giant tries to court young consumers who are watching less traditional television. The company has engaged in preliminary discussions with several online publishers including Vice Media, BuzzFeed and Business Insider, and has discussed increasing its roughly 14% stake in Vox Media, according to people familiar with the matter. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.
Chris Ip looks at the rise of Vice Media, its charismatic founder, Shane Smith and its “almost anachronistic” move to cable as it expands its television footprint. “Vice has mastered the mass production of authenticity for profit,” Ip writes, as it grows to a global workforce of 1,500 and aims to straddle maturity and youthful swagger.
HBO-Vice Deal Should Scare TV News
The expanded pact announced last week between the two companies would have been impressive in its own right were it just contained to their existing weekly series and a whole new channel to be launched as part of the pay cabler’s new a la carte service, HBO Now. But the doozy of this deal with a new-media dynamo is a decidedly old-media move: creating a daily TV newscast on HBO’s linear channel. While details are sparse, it’s hard not to interpret this move as an invasion into one of TV’s most sacred wheelhouses: the evening newscast.
ice Media Inc., the online news organization that reports from remote corners of the globe, plans to create television networks in the U.S. and other markets in the next year. The New York-based company has held talks on its TV ambitions with cable and satellite providers, CEO Shane Smith says, without identifying potential partners.
A+E Networks is close to buying a 10% stake in Vice Media Inc., a deal that would value the company at about $2.5 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Started as a counterculture magazine, Vice Media’s primary business today is video. It operates a lineup of online channels that include news, sports, technology, music and food.
