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Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

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Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#31

Post by untog »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #18
Reedx wrote: post #14

IIRC, I was introduced to Vice with their fascinating coverage of North Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24R8JObNNQ4 (first trip - Shane Smith was banned from the country as a result) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrCQh1usdzE (second trip years later, where they got in under the guise of a Basketball game) Unfortunately it's been increasingly hit or miss ever since and now their process seems to be along thes…

It's happening in Canada as well. They're just not making enough money. They're making money, but not enough. There's a large drive to produce more with less, and to reboot. Journalism, especially good journalism, is expensive. Expensive to execute, and expensive to produce. And everybody wants it for free now.

They're also falling victim to many of the traps startups do with regard to VC funding. Vice (and Buzzfeed for that matter) are ticking along nicely, generating a profit. But they're not generating enough profit for their investors, so they're forced to jump through cost-cutting hoops that will ultimately be to the detriment of their product.

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#32

Post by dleslie »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #29
dleslie wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vice was cheap to run, for a time. It started as a niche magazine in Quebec and expanded into yellow journalism with cheap to make, but provocative, YouTube documentaries. Then it was acquired and it pivoted sharply into being a media and news portal, with a presence on nigh every platform. The content quickly expanded in quantity, and critically overloaded itself in trying to dominate online discussion in every spac…

Vice isn't cheap to run, now, though. And that last statement is a lot of conjecture. Unless you have proof of some conspiracy to dominate online discussion in every space. They do cover a wide variety of subjects, only a couple of which I've read—and they seem generally good, with the odd very good piece. Most media companies run a small gamut of niche categories: lifestyle, fashion, news, business, tech, finance, e…

I think their rapid expansion of properties, some enormous, after 2010 speaks for itself. [0]

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_Media#Properties

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#33

Post by nabla9 »

gcb0 wrote: post #6
nopriorarrests wrote: post #4

Verizon media (aka huffpost, techcrunch and others), Buzzfeed, and now Vice. The beat goes on.

your list just show the yearly churn of the news-repost industry (i.e. companies that have zero investigative journalism, needs fresh people to get fresh news sources to repost) vice (not the site) and buzzfeed news (not regular buzzfeed) are a new beatst in the news industry. they sell tailored pieces (pretty much an improved model that wired used to reborn in the 2000s). for example vice got a huge account promotin…

Buzzfeed started with clickbait trash, then hired investigative journalists to do some good journalism and winning awards (two time Pulizer finalist)

Now they are cutting people from the low effort side but keeping the investigative journalism intact.

It's interesting business model. Produce cheap trash in large volumes to people who consume it and to do little real journalism on side. It really confuses people because the Buzzfeed brand image is schizophrenic. It's both news & bullshit.

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#34

Post by mrguyorama »

untog wrote: post #31
52-6F-62 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's happening in Canada as well. They're just not making enough money. They're making money, but not enough. There's a large drive to produce more with less, and to reboot. Journalism, especially good journalism, is expensive. Expensive to execute, and expensive to produce. And everybody wants it for free now.

They're also falling victim to many of the traps startups do with regard to VC funding. Vice (and Buzzfeed for that matter) are ticking along nicely, generating a profit. But they're not generating enough profit for their investors, so they're forced to jump through cost-cutting hoops that will ultimately be to the detriment of their product.

I wonder if there was ever a time in history where it was okay to just run a business and make some money.

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#35

Post by bdamm »

mrguyorama wrote: post #34
untog wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're also falling victim to many of the traps startups do with regard to VC funding. Vice (and Buzzfeed for that matter) are ticking along nicely, generating a profit. But they're not generating enough profit for their investors, so they're forced to jump through cost-cutting hoops that will ultimately be to the detriment of their product.

I wonder if there was ever a time in history where it was okay to just run a business and make some money.

Still can be done. Just gotta stay private.

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#36

Post by solarkraft »

Reedx wrote: post #14

IIRC, I was introduced to Vice with their fascinating coverage of North Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24R8JObNNQ4 (first trip - Shane Smith was banned from the country as a result) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrCQh1usdzE (second trip years later, where they got in under the guise of a Basketball game) Unfortunately it's been increasingly hit or miss ever since and now their process seems to be along thes…

> Unfortunately it's been increasingly hit or miss ever since and now their process seems to be along these lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw5UzBjgCiI

Wonderful. I've been thinking about an excuse to post this even before clicking the discussion link.

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#37

Post by solarkraft »

dleslie wrote: post #25
52-6F-62 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's happening in Canada as well. They're just not making enough money. They're making money, but not enough. There's a large drive to produce more with less, and to reboot. Journalism, especially good journalism, is expensive. Expensive to execute, and expensive to produce. And everybody wants it for free now.

Vice was cheap to run, for a time. It started as a niche magazine in Quebec and expanded into yellow journalism with cheap to make, but provocative, YouTube documentaries. Then it was acquired and it pivoted sharply into being a media and news portal, with a presence on nigh every platform. The content quickly expanded in quantity, and critically overloaded itself in trying to dominate online discussion in every spac…

> cheap to make, but provocative, YouTube documentaries

That's exactly what I liked from them, but I don't really see that anymore. Motherboard is okay. That's pretty much my contact with Vice.

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#38

Post by Rebelgecko »

solarkraft wrote: post #36
Reedx wrote: post #14

IIRC, I was introduced to Vice with their fascinating coverage of North Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24R8JObNNQ4 (first trip - Shane Smith was banned from the country as a result) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrCQh1usdzE (second trip years later, where they got in under the guise of a Basketball game) Unfortunately it's been increasingly hit or miss ever since and now their process seems to be along thes…

> Unfortunately it's been increasingly hit or miss ever since and now their process seems to be along these lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw5UzBjgCiI Wonderful. I've been thinking about an excuse to post this even before clicking the discussion link.

Episode 2 of Documentary Now on Netflix/IFC is also a pretty good parody of their style. The episode is called Dronez: The Hunt for El Chingon

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#39

Post by ben_jones »

Reedx wrote: post #14

IIRC, I was introduced to Vice with their fascinating coverage of North Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24R8JObNNQ4 (first trip - Shane Smith was banned from the country as a result) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrCQh1usdzE (second trip years later, where they got in under the guise of a Basketball game) Unfortunately it's been increasingly hit or miss ever since and now their process seems to be along thes…

I think we're seeing it all happen at once because it means the negative PR is spread around and not targeted at a specific organization. Media groups essentially have free reign to fire whoever they want under the guise of a 'current media crisis'.

Re: Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff

#40

Post by AJ007 »

untog wrote: post #31
52-6F-62 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's happening in Canada as well. They're just not making enough money. They're making money, but not enough. There's a large drive to produce more with less, and to reboot. Journalism, especially good journalism, is expensive. Expensive to execute, and expensive to produce. And everybody wants it for free now.

They're also falling victim to many of the traps startups do with regard to VC funding. Vice (and Buzzfeed for that matter) are ticking along nicely, generating a profit. But they're not generating enough profit for their investors, so they're forced to jump through cost-cutting hoops that will ultimately be to the detriment of their product.

There has been plenty of in depth reporting about what was going on at Vice. They knew damn well what they were doing. Pump and dump on an unsuspecting old media company that still had tons of money.
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