The information group Vice Media announced Thursday February 22 that the title will no longer publish on its flagship website and that it will cut several hundred jobs.
Focused on a young audience and known for its bold content on current affairs and society, Vice was one of the rising stars of a new generation of online media, before filing for bankruptcy in May.
Bruce Dixon, the group's director, announced a
"strategic reorientation"
, which
"is accompanied by the need to realign our resources and streamline Vice's overall business"
, in a memo, copies of which have been posted online by several Vice journalists.
“Unfortunately, this means that we will reduce our workforce and eliminate several hundred positions
,” the note continues.
Dixon added that
“distributing our digital content the way we used to”
was “ no
longer profitable”
.
Going forward, the company, which is transitioning to a production agency model,
will “seek to partner with established media companies to distribute
[its]
digital content, including news, on their platforms "
, he added.
Employees affected by the layoffs will be informed early next week.
Filing for bankruptcy last May
This is a spectacular fall for the company, which was valued in 2017 at $5.7 billion, but ended up filing for bankruptcy last May.
In June, a group of creditors made up of investment firms Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital bought the company for $350 million.
Vice was founded in 1994 as a Canadian magazine and has grown into an online media group.
The group represented a new generation of online media, with coverage and an original approach, which experts imagined would revolutionize the sector.
But most sites have never made the profits expected by investors in a difficult advertising market.
The slowdown in the online advertising market, the deterioration of the economic situation and the tightening of credit conditions have made the situation of these young media even more difficult.
Another standard bearer of this new generation, BuzzFeed, announced at the end of April the closure of the BuzzFeed News site, with 180 layoffs as a result.