CNN
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Vice Media will stop publishing to its web site and lay off a number of hundred staffers because the beleaguered writer makes “elementary adjustments” to its “strategic imaginative and prescient” beneath its new non-public fairness possession, chief government Bruce Dixon introduced Thursday in a memo to employees.
“This determination was not made flippantly, and I perceive the numerous impression it would have on these affected,” Dixon informed staffers within the memo obtained by CNN, including that staff impacted can be notified early subsequent week.
Dixon stated that Vice Media had decided it’s “not cost-effective” for the corporate to distribute its digital content material the best way it has previously. As an alternative, Vice Media will “look to associate with established media corporations to distribute our digital content material, together with information, on their world platforms, as we absolutely transition to a studio mannequin,” he stated.
Dixon stated the ladies’s lifestyle-focused website Refinery29 will proceed to function independently, and that Vice is in “superior discussions” to promote the enterprise.
“Our monetary companions are supportive and have agreed to take a position on this working mannequin going ahead. We’ll emerge stronger and extra resilient as we embark on this new section of our journey,” he stated.
Forward of the announcement Thursday, the temper inside Vice Media was grim. Staffers struggled to work amid rumors circulating in regards to the outlet’s destiny, likening doing so to “the violinists taking part in aboard the sinking Titanic.”
“I believe most of us have seen the writing on the wall: there are merely not sufficient lifeboats, and extremely unlikely that the skeleton crew of us on digital information can be invited onboard one,” one worker stated.
A senior Vice staffer stated the information was “crushing.”
“It’s devastating to have a bunch of reporters who’ve made such a big impression on the earth have their jobs finish on this means,” the particular person stated.
Vice Media, as soon as a high-flying digital media startup valued at billions of {dollars}, has struggled immensely in recent times. The corporate was acquired out of chapter by Fortress Funding Group and two different collectors final yr for a mere $350 million.
The unconventional strategic shift introduced by Dixon successfully marked the top of Vice Media because the trade has recognized it. As soon as held up as the way forward for the enterprise, Vice Media has quickly contracted over the past 12 months, ending several news programs and shedding staffers.
Vice’s information division was acclaimed for its journalism, capturing the trade’s most prestigious awards for its gritty on-the-ground reporting from around the globe. In 2020, it shared the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting on a kidnapped asylum-seeker in Mexico. It led the information and documentary Emmy Awards in recent times, competing and at occasions outpacing well-established information organizations. And simply this week, Vice Information gained the Polk Award for tv reporting for its protection of Russian mercenaries.
Whereas its information division captured reward for its reporting, Vice discovered itself ensnared in numerous enterprise difficulties and government adjustments, together with the 2018 resignation of co-founder Shane Smith and the departure of his successor, chief government Nancy Dubuc, earlier this yr.
As the corporate explored a sale, it additionally regularly restructured and slashed its workforce. Final yr, it canceled its flagship “Vice Information Tonight” program earlier than submitting for Chapter 11 chapter in mid-Could.
Vice Media joins an extended record of digital publishers which have introduced painful layoffs in latest months. Startup information outlet The Messenger shut down final month, Enterprise Insider lower 8% of its employees and BuzzFeed stated Wednesday that it’ll slash 16% of its workforce because it plans a brand new strategic course.
The hemorrhaging comes because the enterprise fashions that saved a lot of the information and media trade afloat for many years collapses amid a comfortable promoting market, plummeting social media referral site visitors, and the looming menace of synthetic intelligence.