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Rumors spread that the ailing media company, once hailed as the future of digital media and with a market capitalization in the billions, was planning to delete its entire website, with deputy staff preparing for the worst. There is.
Sources told Mediaite that Vice employees received an anonymous tip Wednesday night telling them to back up their articles because the website was scheduled to be taken down. Panic began, officials said, and things got worse on Thursday when the company cut off employees’ ability to download email.
Deputy CEO bruce dixon And senior executives have so far declined to answer questions about the site’s future. “The CEO and senior executives have not taken the opportunity to deny the rumors on multiple occasions, which is bad,” said one staffer. “They have received questions from editorial leadership but have not responded.”
“Apocalyptic,” they said.
Employees had hoped for some clarification at a weekly press conference at noon Thursday, but received none.Those who attended the meeting were left alone.
Of confusion.
“It’s really up in the air right now,” one employee said. “Some say we won’t be able to remove everything, but I’ve personally seen many times how corrupt and stupid senior management can be, so I’m preparing for the worst.”
“The atmosphere is bad,” they added. “We’ve basically been operating with a skeleton staff. But wiping out an entire website would be really brutal.”
Another deputy staff member said, “Everyone is at risk of losing their jobs if the site is shut down.” Upper management knows that people have these fears, but they are not addressing them. ”
Vice was founded in Montreal, Canada in 1994 as a punk magazine covering music and other subcultures. The magazine’s covers often favored nudity, drugs, and blood. By 2017, Vice had grown into a vast media empire with a website, a television and production division, and an advertising agency. A funding round from private equity firm TPG, which regularly invests in media assets, valued Vice at $5.7 billion.
Then everything fell apart. The company’s once-flourishing media business, which gave its CEO a $23 million mansion, struggled to turn a profit and an unfavorable environment for digital media hastened its demise. Last year, Vice filed for bankruptcy. In July, the former lenders acquired the company for a value of $350 million. A series of layoffs continued in November.
Vice’s surprising decline happens exactly as the media industry writes it.
Large has been hurt by the downturn in the advertising market. Messenger, a digital media startup that raised $50 million in funding and hired hundreds of reporters, ran out of money just eight months after it was founded and shut down earlier this year. The entire site was taken offline, and the journalists working there were unable to access their articles.
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