Vice (stylized inall caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. It was founded in 1994 inMontreal as an alternativepunk magazine,[2] and its founders later launched the youth media companyVice Media, which consists of divisions including the printed magazine as well as a website, broadcast news unit, a film production company, a record label, and a publishingimprint. As of February 2015, the magazine's editor-in-chief is Ellis Jones.[3][4]
On 15 May 2023, Vice Media formally filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy, as part of a possible sale to a consortium of lenders including Fortress Investment Group, which will, alongsideSoros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, invest $225 million as a credit bid for nearly all of its assets.[5] In February 2024, CEO Bruce Dixon announced additional layoffs and that the website Vice.com will no longer publish content.[6][7][8] The print magazine returned in September 2024.[9][10]
The precursor toVice magazine was founded in October 1994 inMontreal under the nameVoice (laterVoice of Montreal), by Interimages Communications. It was a spin-off of the English-language portion ofImages magazine, a multicultural publication founded in the early 1990s byDominique Ollivier with Alix Laurent,[11] under the nameVoice of Montreal.[12] Issue no. 1 lists Laurent and Ollivier as publishers, withSuroosh Y. Alvi as editor andGavin McInnes as assistant editor, withShane Smith joining the magazine's staff later.[13][14][15][16] The magazine was established under a job creation program of the Quebec government to allow social welfare recipients to gain work experience. It focused on Montreal's alternative cultural scene, including music, art, trends and drug culture, to compete with the already establishedMontreal Mirror. During the 1990s, Montreal'sPlateau Mont-Royal/Mile-End neighbourhood was home to a burgeoning subculture with the advent of collectives such asGodspeed You! Black Emperor,Dummies Theatre,Bran Van 3000 and laterArcade Fire.[17][18] Alvi, McInnes and Smith bought out the publisher and changed the magazine's name toVice in 1996.[19][20]
Richard Szalwinski, a Canadian software millionaire, acquired the magazine and relocated the operation to New York City in 1999.[21] Following the relocation, the magazine quickly developed a reputation for provocative andpolitically incorrect content. Under Szalwinski's ownership, a few retail stores were opened in New York City and customers could purchase fashion items that were advertised in the magazine. However, due to the end of thedot-com bubble, the three founders eventually regained ownership of theVice brand, followed by closure of the stores.[16]
The British edition ofVice was launched in 2002 andAndy Capper was its first editor. Capper explained in an interview shortly after the UK debut that the publication's remit was to cover "the things we're meant to be ashamed of", and articles were published on topics such asbukkake and bodily functions.[22]
By the end of 2007, 13 foreign editions ofVice magazine were published, the Vice independent record label was functional, and the online video channel VBS.com had 184,000 unique viewers from the U.S. during the month of August. The media company was still based in New York City, but the magazine began featuring articles on topics that were considered more serious, such as armed conflict in Iraq, than previous content. Alvi explained toThe New York Times in November 2007: "The world is much bigger than the Lower East Side and the East Village."[16]
McInnes left the publication in 2008, citing "creative differences" as the primary issue. In an email communication dated 23 January, McInnes explained: "I no longer have anything to do withVice or VBS or DOs & DON'Ts or any of that. It's a long story but we've all agreed to leave it at 'creative differences,' so please don't ask me about it."[23]
At the commencement of 2012, an article inForbes magazine referred to the Vice company as "Vice Media", but the precise time when this title development occurred is not public knowledge.[24]Vice acquired the fashion magazinei-D in December 2012 and, by February 2013,Vice produced 24 global editions of the magazine, with a global circulation of 1,147,000 (100,000 in the UK). By this stage, Alex Miller had replaced Capper as the editor-in-chief of the UK edition. Furthermore,Vice consisted of 800 worldwide employees, including 100 in London, and around 3,500 freelancers also produced content for the company.[22]
In February 2015, Vice Media named Ellis Jones editor-in-chief ofVice magazine and former UK editor-in-chief, Alex Miller, was appointed to the position of global head of content.[25]
In 2018, the magazine switched to a quarterly publication schedule, though issues still generally explored a single theme.[26] The publication was put on hiatus in 2019.[9]
In 2023,Vice filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy. The company's lenders—Fortress Investment Group,Soros Fund Management andMonroe Capital—agreed to purchase the company for $225 million.[27] In February 2024,The New York Times highlighted that "over the past half-decade,Vice has had near annual layoffs and mounting losses, and has filed for bankruptcy, making it the poster child for the battered digital-media industry" and that while "some observers hoped its new owners [...] would reinvest" in the company, Fortress Investment Group has instead "decided to make sweeping cuts".[8]
In September 2024, Vice Media relaunched its print magazine and will publish issues quarterly. The company has a goal of reaching 20,000 subscribers within a year.[9]
Vice magazine includes the work of journalists, columnists, fiction writers, graphic artists and cartoonists, and photographers. BothVice's online and magazine content has shifted from dealing mostly with independent arts andpop cultural matters to covering more serious news topics. Due to the large array of contributors and the fact that often writers will only submit a small number of articles with the publication,Vice's content varies dramatically and its political and cultural stance is often unclear or contradictory. Articles on the site feature a range of subjects, often things not covered as by mainstream media. The magazine's editors have championed theimmersionist school of journalism, which has been passed to other properties of Vice Media such as the documentary television showBalls Deep on theViceland Channel. This style of journalism is regarded as something of a DIY antithesis to the methods practiced by mainstream news outlets, and has published an entire issue of articles written in accordance with this ethos. Entire issues of the magazine have also been dedicated to the concerns ofIraqi people,[31]Native Americans,[32]Russian people,[33] people withmental disorders,[34] and people withmental disabilities.[35]Vice also publishes an annual guide for students in theUnited Kingdom.[36]
In 2007, aVice announcement was published on the Internet:
After umpteen years of putting out what amounted to a reference book every month, we started to get bored with it. Besides, too many other magazines have ripped it and started doing their own lame take on themes. So we're going to do some issues, starting now, that have whatever we feel like putting in them.[37]
In a March 2008 interview withThe Guardian, Smith was asked about the magazine's political allegiances and he stated, "We're not trying to say anything politically in a paradigmatic left/right way… We don't do that because we don't believe in either side. Are my politicsDemocrat orRepublican? I think both are horrific. And it doesn't matter anyway. Money runs America; money runs everywhere."[38]
Vice founded its website as Viceland.com in 1996, as Vice.com was already owned. In 2007, it startedVBS.tv as a domain, which prioritized videos over print, and had a number of shows for free such asThe Vice Guide to Travel. In 2011, Viceland.com and VBS.tv were combined into Vice.com,[39] also the host of the Vice Motherboard website at motherboard.vice.com.[40]
In 2012, Vice Media was created as the parent company forVice magazine and other properties including Vice News on HBO and the Vice.com website.[41] The company has since expanded and diversified to include a network of online channels, including Munchies.tv, Motherboard.tv, Noisey.com, Thu.mp, and Broadly.[42]
On 22 February 2024, Vice Media CEO Bruce Dixon announced "several hundred" additional layoffs as the company restructures,[6] and that the website Vice.com would no longer publish content.[6][7] Some of its journalists have since spun off, such as404 Media being aspiritual successor of the tech divisionMotherboard founded by its key people.[43][44]
In 2007,Vice publishedThe Vice Photo Book (ISBN1576874109),[45][46] with a collection of photos ofJaimie Warren,Jerry Hsu, Michael Rababy and Patrick O’Dell. The book is divided in five parts: "Vice Photographers", "Vice's Photojournalism", "Vice Fashion", and the final two sections are a collage of previously publishedVICE photos. The book also contains interviews with some of the photographers.
Jill Abramson:Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts. Simon & Schuster, New York 2019, (ISBN978-1-5011-2320-7), S. 42–61, 147–181, 346–369 (=Chapter 2,6 and11).
From its beginnings asVoice of Montreal,Vice had a "reputation for provocation".[47] In 2010,Vice was described as "gonzo journalism for the YouTube generation".[48] As the magazine grew into a broader media brand, it struggled with "how to distance itself from its crude past, yet hold on to enough of that reputation to cement, and grow, its authority with its core audience".[49] Nevertheless, the magazine has continued to face controversy. In 2013, the magazine retracted parts of a fashion spread entitled 'Last Words' which depicted "female writers killing themselves".[50][49] Also in 2013,Vice again gained unwelcome attention when the then-editor of the magazine joined millionaire software mogulJohn McAfee as he evaded authorities to avoid being questioned about a murder case.[47]
In the late 2017, multiple stories were published citing allegations of sexual misconduct and a general "boys club" culture atVice magazine's parent company, Vice Media.[51][52][4]
^"Notons principalement la disparition du volet anglophone de notre magazine. Cette séparation (signe des temps?) n'a pour but que la création d'une publication soeur: VOICE OF MONTREAL, qui a vu le jour en octobre dernier. Ce divorce à l'amiable devenait nécessaire pour permettre plus de liberté aux deux groupes linguistiques et pour assurer une meilleure représentativité."Boisclair, Denis (November 1994)."Le nouvel Images s'améliore !".Revue Images.4 (1): 1.
^"Voice V01 N01".Voice. Vol. 01, no. 1. Montreal: Interimages Communications. November 1994. p. 3. Retrieved22 December 2024.
