Vice Media Group announced that it was streamlining its news division, including layoffs and the cancelation of its signature newscast, Vice News Tonight.Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, co-CEOs of Vice Media Group, said that the changes were in “response to the current market conditions and business realities facing VMG and the broader news and media industry.”“To be incredibly clear, Vice News is core to Vice Media Group and fundamental to our business. We are NOT exiting the news business, but we are changing the shape of Vice News to position the whole Company for long-term opportunities and improve how we deliver important, ground-breaking journalism well into the future,” they wrote.The staff reductions are the latest to hit the news business, with both traditional and digital outlets hit by a downturn in the ad market. Last week, BuzzFeed announced that it is shutting down BuzzFeed News. ABC News also has gone through layoffs, with word this week that Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight, would be leaving.Vice Media also is in the midst of efforts to sell or recapitalize. Nancy Dubuc exited as CEO of Vice Media Group in February.Dixon and Lokhandwala said that Vice News would be streamlined to “focus on our growing digital video business and our News documentary and series production business for VTV and distribution partners worldwide.”Vice News Tonight, which airs on Vice TV, will have its last broadcast in May, they said.Dozens of staffers are affected by the cutbacks, according to a source familiar with the plans. Among those affected were Vice News editor-in-chief Michael Learmonth, chief political correspondent Elizabeth Landers, senior political reporter Cameron Joseph, senior editor Christina Sterbenz, national security reporter Ben Makuch, as well as audio journalist Sam Eagan. Also laid off was Brendan Kennedy, vice president of development and documentary acquisitions for Vice News.Vice News is scaling back its audio team, although podcasts will continue to be produced, and Vice World News short-form video will be ended. Subrata De, executive vice president of Vice News, wrote in a memo that the Vice World News team, which will impacted by the cuts, “have created some of our most talked about and textured work. But as we reduce the scale of digital video series, we are forced to slow and eventually end production at this time.”Vice’s digital news team also will be folded into the publishing division, under the consolidated banner of Vice News. Katie Drummond will continue to oversee the Vice Digital brands across news and entertainment, and will report to Cory Haik, COO of Vice Media. A meeting to outline the changes is planned for next week.The Vice News Tonight newscast has been on the air for nearly seven years, with more than 1,000 episodes produced. It was originally broadcast on HBO, but then relaunched on Vice TV, the joint venture with A+E Networks. The newscast won a Peabody for its 2017 coverage of the Charlottesville riots. It also was the most Emmy nominated newscast from 2018 to 2022.De wrote in the memo, “For nearly seven years, VNT has been a lynchpin for us – a guiding light to so many, and an industry leader in awards and storytelling. To be able to see this kind of journalism, first on HBO and then on Vice TV, was game-changing and historic. From Charlottesville, to those brutal nights in Minneapolis, to the streets of Mosul, Baghdad, Kabul, Port-au-Prince and Kherson, millions of people watched the VNT pieces shared on multiple platforms and have felt such a profound connection to the show and to the people who make it all happen.”CNN first reported on the changes at the company.De wrote, “Today’s actions underscore the collective need to figure out how to get this business model right and support fact-based journalism. Our audience wants it — they respond to it — and they will stay for it.”
© 2023 Deadline Hollywood, LLC.