Is the media in meltdown?
Media company Vice has filed for bankruptcy protection, with other digital-first publications such as BuzzFeed and Vox Media laying off staff in recent months.
How did Vice get here?
Vice, founded as a punk magazine in Montreal in 1994, quickly made a name for itself as an experimental and youth-focused platform promising to disrupt the traditional media landscape. Once hailed as a “global success” by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, it received millions of dollars of investment and was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017.
But on Monday, Vice filed for bankruptcy protection in the US amid a cut-price sale to a group of its lenders - and it could be taken over for just $225 million. The platform said that it “expects to emerge as a financially healthy and stronger company in two to three months”.
What’s the bigger picture?
In April, BuzzFeed announced that it was shutting down its news division and cutting 15% of its workforce amid financial challenges and a slump in advertising revenue. Vox Media and Insider (formerly Business Insider) have also laid off staff in recent months, while gal-dem magazine folded after eight years.
Why is this happening?
Vice has been plagued by financial difficulties and executive turmoil. There’s also a feeling that the platform has been unable to move with the times - successfully attracting millennial audiences but failing to achieve the same with Gen Z.
The ever-changing strategies of large tech groups, such as Meta, has heavily impacted digital media brands as a whole, as has the seemingly limitless popularity of platforms like TikTok, which have “siphoned younger audiences”, said the FT.
Are any platforms doing well?
Some older media companies appear to be faring better. Legacy titles such as The New York Times (NYT) and The Times - which is making a sustained profit for the first time since 1981 - have diversified their income, making money from subscriptions, advertising and events.
The latest Vice news serves as a reminder of how precarious the industry is and of the importance of diverse and free sources of journalism.
As former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson pointed out, variety can only be a good thing. “Journalism, a bedrock of democracy, thrives when different voices and informed audiences make themselves heard,” she said.