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New York (AFP) – US media group Vice said on Monday May 15 that it filed for bankruptcy to facilitate its sale, an announcement the market had been waiting for for weeks.
Vice, known for its cutting-edge news and lifestyle content, once became among the rising stars of a new generation of digital media companies, but struggled with declining advertising revenue.
A consortium, including investment firm Fortress Investment Group, Vice’s main creditor, will take control of the group for $225 million unless other parties make a higher offer, according to the statement released Monday.
Vice Media Group, which was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017, produces content in 25 languages, with more than 30 offices around the world.
Free to access, it relies mainly on advertising to generate revenue. But with the deteriorating economic situation, the ad market shrank and came to be captured mainly by tech giants such as Google and Facebook.
Vice canceled its flagship show Vice News Tonight and laid off 100 people at the end of April.
In its statement on Monday, the group assured that all of its media brands will continue to produce content despite the bankruptcy filing.
“We look forward to completing the sale process in the next two to three months and charting a successful next chapter at Vice,” he said.
An irreverent publication victim of the crisis
Vice was founded in 1994 as a Canadian magazine and grew into an online media group with news websites and television operations.
In the early 2010s, Vice embodied, like BuzzFeed or The Huffington Post, a new generation of fully digital media that sought to differentiate itself from traditional media and capture young audiences.
After cultivating a “bad boy” image, Vice gained notoriety for sending former NBA star Dennis Rodman to North Korea. He also won praise for a five-part documentary on the inner workings of the Islamic State group.
The free media are the most exposed in a difficult economic context, which has already caused layoffs in large media, from the US public radio ‘NPR’ to the newspaper ‘The Washington Post’, passing through the channel ”.
BuzzFeed also announced in late April the closure of the BuzzFeed News site, with 180 layoffs.
