Vice Media makes new round of staff cuts

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Sep 2, 2019

Montreal-born, Brooklyn-based media company Vice Media LLC is making another round of job cuts, this time slashing staff at its in-house cable channel, Viceland. 

The cuts, reported by The Wall Street Journal, follow the announcement of a restructuring plan by Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc in February, which at the time coincided with a cut of 250 jobs. According to people familiar with the matter, the newest job cuts impact about 15 people across departments including programming, marketing and research, and come as part of a strategy to move Viceland toward news and away from entertainment and other lifestyle programming, the WSJ reported. The people added that Vice Media is merging Vice News and Viceland and recently has added staffers to its news division.

Launched in 2016, the cable channel has been a weak performer within the Vice portfolio, contributing to the company missing annual revenue targets alongside factors like declining traffic. At one point valued at  $5.7 billion, Vice saw a drop in its value in 2018 when Disney announced a $157 million write-down on its stake in the company.

In May, Vice raised $250 million in debt from a group of investors that included billionaire George Soros. Later, in late July, the company was rumoured to be in talks to acquire fellow new media giant, Refinery29.