VICE shuts down website and lays off ‘hundreds’ of staff

Once valued at $5.7 billion, the outlet has since descended into irrelevance

Vice.com has stopped publishing new content and laid off several hundred employees, its CEO announced late on Thursday. The outlet once valued at billions of dollars had to be rescued from bankruptcy last year, by a consortium including George Soros.

The website is still available, but its content management system was shut down minutes before midnight, according to one employee. The VICE company will “transition to a studio model,” CEO Bruce Dixon said in a message sent to the staff, as part of “fundamental changes to our strategic vision.”

“We create and produce outstanding original content true to the Vice brand. However, it is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously,” Dixon wrote. Going forward, Vice will partner with “established media companies” to distribute its digital content on their platforms instead.

Refinery29, a “social-first” outlet Vice acquired in 2019, will continue to operate until the company can sell it off.

“Our financial partners are supportive and have agreed to invest in this operating model going forward,” Dixon noted. Vice had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2023, and was acquired by Fortress Investment Group and a hedge fund run by billionaire and Democrat mega-donor George Soros.

Whereas Vice once produced edgy video documentaries, in recent years the website ended up obsessed with left-wing politics and focus on gender and racial issues. One critic posted a collage of such articles on X (formerly Twitter), to celebrate Vice.com’s demise.

RIP in peace, Vice https://t.co/8ODO6kzrYh pic.twitter.com/BtB6mYJXr0

— pagliacci the hated