Sunset in Viceland… Vice Media, the news company behind sites like Motherboard, Refinery29, and (of course) Vice.com, has filed for bankruptcy. Yesterday it agreed to sell most of its assets to a group of creditors for $225M — a far cry from its $5B+ valuation six years ago. Refresher: Vice launched in the mid-'90s and quickly gained fame thanks to its edgy headlines and quirky docu-series (see: “Snakeman”). But Vice has struggled to turn a profit as news-consumption habits shift.
Old series: Vice's monthly US visitors dropped to 20M in March — just half its audience in 2019. Last week it axed 100 jobs and its flagship “Vice News Tonight” program.
New chapter: The company says it plans to use the creditors’ cash to keep biz running as usual, while looking for a larger buyout offer to help escape its $800M+ of debt.
The digi-darling downfall… Vice’s bankruptcy follows the unraveling of other digital-native media sites that’ve struggled to keep eyeballs. Last month BuzzFeed closed its news division, and its stock has plunged 90% since its SPAC IPO in 2021. And last week Paramount shuttered MTV News after 36 years on the air. In 2017 Mashable sold for a fifth of its 2016 valuation.
News go-tos are consolidating views… Half of US adults are getting some or most of their news from social media, redirecting precious ad dollars away from digital publishers. While buzzy headlines from Vice and BuzzFeed can rack up likes on social feeds, it doesn’t translate to consistent site traffic. Meanwhile, traditional publishers are holding their weight: The New York Times added 1M digital-only subscribers last year, in its second-best year for online subs.