The bankruptcy of “Vice”, the American media group

The American news media group Vice declared itself bankrupt. In a context of decline in the advertising market, this announcement had been expected on the market for several weeks. A consortium, including the investment company Fortress Investment Group, the main creditor of Vicewill take control of the group for 225 million dollars, unless a higher offer is made by other parties, according to the press release published on Monday, May 15.

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. The media group, with free access, relies mainly on advertising to generate revenue. But with the deterioration of the economic situation, the advertising market has tightened, to be mainly captured by technological giants, such as Google and Facebook. Vice will continue its activities throughout the procedure, specifies the media.

At the turn of the 2010s, Vice embodied, as BuzzFeed where the Huffington Post, a new generation of fully online news media that aimed to shake up the big old ones. Free media are the most exposed in a difficult economic context, which has prompted many historical players to lay off, from public radio NPR to washington postvia the CNN channel. BuzzFeed moreover announced at the end of April the closure of the site BuzzFeed Newswith 180 layoffs.