According to a memo from CEO Bruce Dixon, Vice Media plans to cut hundreds of jobs as it ceases publishing on Vice.com.
In May, the United States witnessed the company filing for bankruptcy and its subsequent acquisition by Fortress Investment Group.
Mr. Dixon announced Vice’s intention to “partner with established media companies to distribute our digital content.”
This year, media companies like Channel 4, the Los Angeles Times, and Business Insider have downsized their workforce.
In the memo obtained by the BBC, Mr Dixon stated that “it is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content in the way we have done previously.”
“Regrettably, this means that we will be reducing our workforce, eliminating several hundred positions,” he told reporters.
According to Mr. Dixon, the company is currently selling the business and intends to make an announcement in the coming weeks.
Before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which postpones a US company’s obligations to its creditors, Vice announced previous layoffs. This was achieved by ceasing production of its flagship TV show.
Shane Smith, Gavin McInnes, and Suroosh Alvi founded Vice Media in 1994 as a fringe magazine called Voice of Montreal. Today, the company operates in over 30 countries.
In 2017, the company was valued at $5.7 billion (£4.5 billion). Hailed as one of the vanguards of companies poised to disrupt the traditional media landscape with edgy, youth-focused content spanning print, events, music, online, TV, and feature films.
Vice aimed to reach millions of young people through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
The company produced a film titled “My Journey Inside the Islamic State,” featuring a Vice journalist filming alongside the terrorist group in Syria. Additionally, Vice accompanied basketball star Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters on a “sports diplomacy” mission to North Korea.
Recent content production involved documentaries about controversial influencer Andrew Tate and a film about Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, starring actor Sean Penn.
Despite these efforts, the company’s revenues have remained flat for several years, and it has struggled to turn a profit. Vice’s plans to go public via a merger also ended in failure.
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