Vice Eliminating “Several Hundred Positions” As It Move Away From Online News

Beleaguered youth-skewing media company Vice is eliminating “several hundred positions” and moving away from online news.

CEO Bruce Dixon told staff in an internal memo the news following a morning of questions being raised about the future of the brand.

These are the latest layoffs to occur at the company, which was sold out of bankruptcy last year.

Dixon said it was making some “fundamental changes to our strategic vision”.

“We create and produce outstanding original content true to the Vice brand. However, it is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously. Moving forward, we will look to partner with established media companies to distribute our digital content, including news, on their global platforms, as we fully transition to a studio model. As part of this shift, we will no longer publish content on vice.com, instead putting more emphasis on our social channels as we accelerate our discussions with partners to take our content to where it will be viewed most broadly,” Dixon wrote in the note to staff.

“With this strategic shift comes the need to realign our resources and streamline our overall operations at Vice. Regrettably, this means that we will be reducing our workforce, eliminating several hundred positions. This decision was not made lightly, and I understand the significant impact it will have on those affected. Employees who will be affected will notified about next steps early next week, consistent with local laws and practices,” he added.

Vice-owned Refinery 29 will continue as a standalone digital publishing business.