Vice Media is ending its flagship TV news show and laying off staff, marking the latest cuts for journalists in the digital media industry.
(Bloomberg) — Vice Media is ending its flagship TV news show and laying off staff, marking the latest cuts for journalists in the digital media industry.
Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, Vice’s new co-chief executive officers, said in a memo to staff Thursday that they are discontinuing Vice News Tonight. The last broadcast will be in May. Vice will also make a “painful” number of cuts across its global news team as the company refocuses on digital videos, documentaries and its TV production business.
The reductions involve more than 100 jobs out of Vice’s 1,500-employee workforce.
“It’s clear that we need to accelerate Vice News’ transition to the platforms where its biggest audiences are,” the co-CEOs said, citing the company’s own channels and other companies’ streaming services.
Vice News Tonight started in 2016 as a newscast on HBO and won acclaim for its coverage of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. HBO ended the partnership in 2019. Recently, the show had aired on Vice TV, the company’s cable channel.
The changes mark the latest shakeup at Vice, a former media darling that has struggled to live up to its lofty valuation. In February, Vice said Nancy Dubuc was leaving the company after five years as CEO.
Digital media companies are struggling as advertisers pull back from spending in an uncertain economy, and their remaining dollars go mostly to tech giants like Facebook and Google. Journalism can be expensive and less profitable than other forms of online content, making the business an easy target for cost-cutting.
Last week, BuzzFeed Inc. shut down its news operation, and online publisher Insider Inc. said it’s cutting about 10% of its staff.
(Updates with number of job cuts in third paragraph.)
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