Vice Media

• 1. Rise of a Counterculture Empire

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  Vice Media once commanded a $5.7 billion valuation, making it one of the most aggressively scaled digital media companies of its era. That number, reached after a $450 million investment from private-equity firm TPG Capital in June 2017, would later stand as the peak before a long, public unraveling. The story of Vice begins not in New York City but in Montreal, where a scrappy alternative magazine called Voice was founded in October 1994, and ends, at least in one chapter, with a bankruptcy filing in May 2023 and a sale for $350 million to a consortium led by Fortress Investment Group.

  Voice was the creation of Alix Laurent of Interimages Communications, with Suroosh Alvi serving as editor and Gavin McInnes as assistant editor, and Shane Smith joining the staff later. The publication initially trained its focus on drug culture, skateboarding, art, music, and trends, positioning itself against the already-established Montreal Mirror. In 1996, Alvi, McInnes, and Smith bought out the publisher and renamed the magazine Vice. That act of ownership would define the company's identity: outsider-turned-proprietor, always pitching itself as the authentic alternative to mainstream media.

  A $4 million investment from Canadian investor Richard Szalwinski gave the founders momentum to relocate to New York City in 1999. By 2001, they had bought Vice back from investors and set up new offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. That neighborhood would remain the gravitational center of the company for decades, eventually becoming the site of a controversial real estate expansion that displaced beloved independent arts venues.

• 2. Digital Pivot and YouTube Fame

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  On the advice of creative director Spike Jonze, Vice began expanding into digital video in 2006, launching VBS.tv as a joint venture with MTV Networks. Shows like The Vice Guide To Travel, Epicly Later'd, and Hamilton's Pharmacopeia built an early fan base that proved youth audiences would seek out unconventional video online.

  In 2007, Vice Media pushed further into digital channels, launching Motherboard for technology coverage, Noisey for music, and The Creators Project, an arts-and-technology site built with Intel. Later additions included Thump for electronic music, Vice News for global reporting, Munchies for food, and Vice Sports. The agency arm Virtue Worldwide also launched in this period, offering creative services to advertisers seeking access to Vice's young audience.

  Santiago Stelley served as director of content of VBS.tv from 2006 to 2010, then as creative director of Vice Media from 2010 to 2012. Co-founder Gavin McInnes left the company in January 2008 over what was described as creative differences, going on to found the website streetcarnage.com. He later co-founded Rooster, an advertising agency, and became known as a far-right activist who founded the Proud Boys.

  Those early digital years also brought the first scrutiny of Vice's editorial practices. A 2011 documentary on Libya raised questions about whether a reporter had actually reached the frontlines as claimed in a voiceover, with a source alleging that only a cameraman made the trip. Columbia Journalism Review reported that Vice had altered shots during editing in pursuit of more entertaining scenes. The tension between authenticity and spectacle would follow the company forward.

• 3. HBO, News, and the Emmy Years

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  In 2013, Vice Media premiered a 30-minute newsmagazine for HBO titled Vice, with Bill Maher as executive producer. The first 10-episode season included a segment in which Vice played an exhibition basketball game in North Korea with Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters. The second season, which aired in 2014, won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

  Vice News, launched in 2014, almost immediately drew global attention for its coverage of protests and conflict in Ukraine and Venezuela. By October of that year, an editor at BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat said the BBC was playing catch-up to Vice News. That same year, New York Times critic David Carr, who had sparred with Shane Smith on camera in the 2011 documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, reversed his earlier skepticism. In a 2014 New York Times column, Carr wrote that Vice was deadly serious about doing real news that young people would actually watch.

  On the 26th of March 2015, HBO renewed its contract with Vice for four more years, expanding the annual broadcast schedule from 14 to nearly 30 episodes. Vice News Tonight, a nightly program featuring pre-edited segments on global news, technology, the environment, economics, and pop culture, premiered on the 10th of October 2016. It was designed to run 48 weeks each year and avoided the use of live anchors.

• 4. Big Money, Big Problems

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  In mid-August 2013, Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox invested $70 million in Vice Media for a 5% stake. The following year, A&E Networks, jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation, made a $250 million investment for a 10% ownership stake. In November and December 2015, Disney made two additional investments totaling $400 million. Disney later wrote down its Vice investment by $157 million in September 2018 and then acquired Fox's stake in Vice when its purchase of 21st Century Fox completed in March 2019.

  On the 2nd of July 2014, Vice announced it would relocate into a warehouse space in Williamsburg that had housed the independent concert venues 285 Kent, Death by Audio, and Glasslands. Vice spent $20 million to renovate the 60,000-square-foot building on an eight-year lease and received $6.5 million in tax credits from New York state's Empire State Development. The displacement of those creative tenants drew backlash from Brooklyn's music community, and coverage of the deals revealed terms that contradicted some of Vice's public statements about the renovation.

  In October 2019, Vice announced it was acquiring Refinery29 in a deal worth a reported $400 million, valuing the combined company at $4 billion. The acquisition came despite mounting financial pressure. In November 2018, The Wall Street Journal had reported that Vice was looking to trim its workforce by 10-15%. In May 2020, the company laid off more than 150 staff. In June 2020, Vice launched an investigation into allegations of a toxic work environment at Refinery29 itself.

  In March 2020, Vice organized the Azimuth Music Festival in Saudi Arabia, less than two years after pausing all work in that country following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Vice's brand was kept off marketing materials, and contractors signed non-disclosure agreements about the company's involvement. Vice later opened a commercial and creative office in Riyadh in 2022.

• 5. Sexual Misconduct and Accountability

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  On the 23rd of December 2017, The New York Times reported that Vice had reached four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against employees. More than 20 other women said they had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company, including unwanted kisses, groping, lewd remarks, and propositions. Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi responded with a written statement acknowledging that the company had failed to create a safe and inclusive workplace, particularly for women.

  In January 2018, COO/CFO Sarah Broderick sent a memo to staff announcing that President Andrew Creighton had voluntarily taken temporary leave while the company investigated a $135,000 settlement paid in 2016 to a former employee who alleged she was fired after rejecting him. Mike Germano, who had founded Carrot Creative before Vice acquired the agency in 2013, was suspended. Germano was accused of pulling a former colleague onto his lap at a company party and telling strategist Amanda Rue that he had not wanted to hire her because he wanted to have sex with her.

  Vice also faced criticism for continuing to feature the work of photographer Terry Richardson, who faced multiple accusations of sexual abuse from models. A former female employee who covered a story about sex workers in a developing country said Vice tried to sensationalize and exploit the women depicted, including requesting that she go undercover as a prostitute, a request she refused. In April 2021, Vice drew criticism from Cambodians after publishing colorized images of victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide with smiles photoshopped onto their faces. Vice acknowledged the manipulation and said it would investigate how the editorial failure occurred.

• 6. Bankruptcy and Aftermath

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  Shane Smith stepped down as CEO in March 2018 and took the title of Executive Chairman. Former A&E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc succeeded him, saying Smith would focus on content and strategic deals. In 2022, Vice Media fell well short of its $700 million revenue target. Its news division earned 10 Emmy Awards that year, but the financial shortfall and stalled sale talks with Antenna Group left the company in a precarious position.

  Dubuc left as CEO on the 24th of February 2023 as the company struggled to find a buyer and turn a profit. Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala were appointed co-CEOs three days later. On the 15th of May 2023, Vice formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The initial plan called for a consortium including Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management, and Monroe Capital to invest $225 million as a credit bid. Vice then accepted the consortium's increased offer of $350 million before the bankruptcy auction, and the sale closed in August 2023. Lokhandwala resigned as co-CEO in December, leaving Dixon as sole CEO.

  On the 22nd of February 2024, Dixon announced several hundred additional layoffs and said Vice.com would stop publishing content. The New York Times described Vice as the poster child for the battered digital-media industry, noting that Fortress had chosen sweeping cuts rather than reinvestment. Chris Thompson of Defector, quoted by The New York Times, compared the ownership's treatment of Vice to a scene from Goodfellas, writing that executives had fattened themselves at the company's expense until there was nothing left, then burned it to the ground.

  In April 2024, Vice sold Refinery29 to Sundial Media Group, owner of Essence magazine. Vice Studios Group was restructured into five units under co-presidents Jamie Hall and Danny Gabai: Pulse Films, UnTypical (formerly Vice Studios), Vice Studios LatAm, Vice Studios Canada, and a news documentary unit. In May 2024, Vice announced a joint venture with Savage Ventures to relaunch Vice.com, Munchies, Motherboard, and Noisey. The print magazine, which had been on hiatus since 2019, relaunched in September 2024 on a quarterly schedule, with a stated goal of reaching 20,000 subscribers within a year. In April 2025, Vice acquired Cuba Pictures, a drama producer based in the United Kingdom, from Curtis Brown.