Once a digital media darling, Vice Media Group on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection after years of financial troubles:
A consortium of Vice's lenders which includes Fortress Investment, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital is looking to acquire the company following the filing.
The digital media trailblazer, once valued at $5.7 billion and known for sites including Vice and Motherboard, had been restructuring and cutting jobs across its global news business over recent months.
[...] Launched in Canada in 1994 as a fringe magazine, Vice expanded around the world with youth-focused content and a prominent social media presence. It endured several years of financial troubles, however, as tech giants such as Google and Meta vacuumed up global ad spend.
To facilitate its sale, Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. If the application is approved, other parties will be able to bid for the company. Credit bids enable creditors to swap secured debt for company assets rather than pay cash.
Also at NPR, CNN and CBC News.
Previously: Vice Media Will Reorganize and Lay Off 10% of Staff
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Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff
Vice Media is planning a reorganization that will include laying off about 10 percent of its workforce as the once high-flying startup looks to rein in an unwieldy business that grew quickly during the height of the digital boom.
Around 250 jobs are expected to be cut, a company spokeswoman tells The Hollywood Reporter, as the 2,500-person Vice reduces redundancies internationally and reorients to focus on growth areas like film and television production and branded content. All departments at every level are expected to have layoffs, from IT to finance to television.
[...] It is crucial that Vice, which the Wall Street Journal reported in November was on track to bring revenue between $600 million and $650 million in 2018, become profitable as investors get antsy for the company to find a buyer. Disney took a $157 million write-down on its Vice stake in November.
Also at TechCrunch.
Another link from AC: Newsflash: The Trump Curse? Vice Media Cuts 10% of Staff after HuffingtonPost & BuzzFeed Layoffs
Related: BuzzFeed to Cut 15% of Staff in New Round of Layoffs
Over 1,000 Media Jobs Lost in One Day
(Score: 1, Troll) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday May 18, @07:54AM (4 children)
They could have replaced all their entire editorial staff with ChatGPT and the content quality wouldn't have changed one iota. Why file for bankrupcy now?
(Score: 2, Troll) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 18, @09:56AM (3 children)
>Why file for bankrupcy now?
The accountants advised them it will maximize their ROI to Welsh all their debt now.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18, @10:27AM (2 children)
OK, but what kinds of debt can a news (or "news" if you prefer) organization ring up? I guess there will be some rent, probably on office space that is currently mostly empty with people working from home. Then there are salaries for the managers and some costs for business services (legal, accounting), but if there were very many managers that's a big mistake in a smaller company--so they should have been mostly gone as soon as things turned bad? Then of course salaries for the writers, but from everything I've heard about other online magazines, these have been cut to the bone for some years now. Surely they can't have a big bill with their webhosting company?
So what's left? Well, there are the people that sell adverts, but they should be on commission,imo, no big debt there.
And then at the bottom of the pecking order are the website programmers...and, maybe here's the key? Just how much were the "creatives" that did the website design (and constant twiddling) being paid?
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday May 18, @10:50PM (1 child)
Vice used to do some pretty serious in-depth journalism - reporters in overseas locations investigating some pretty hairy stuff. I don't know if they still do that or not?
More recently they seem to be fans of doing panels about $AGENDA. I'm sure that most of those panel members would be asking to be flown from somewhere across the country, put up in a hotel, paid for their appearance etc just so they can spout nonsense. Maybe their legal fees have been climbing when each member tries to sue for misrepresentation when they don't like the final edit?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19, @04:17PM
Ah yes, piss some people off ---> big legal fees.
Thanks, that makes so much more sense than the normal sorts of online-magazine expenses I was thinking about.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snort on Thursday May 18, @08:06PM
bye.