![]() It's very edgy stuff from war zones, sex, drugs and violence," says Altimeter Group media analyst Rebecca Lieb.ĭespite that image, Vice co-founders Smith and Suroosh Alvi, also 44, have stayed focused on their core belief: to tell stories that others don't tell, often with a personal perspective, and to serve the under served. "Vice is very much built on bad boy content. ![]() When Vice reached 2 million YouTube subscribers, Smith made good on a promise to go to work naked - sporting just tattoos, a cod piece and a beer. Smith, a star of its videos, personifies Vice's bold attitude. Vice counts 4.8 million subscribers across its various YouTube channels. Video has been a big focus from Vice, Vox and others. Sometimes dubbed Vice's far-flung media empire spans books, its magazine, an HBO series and foreign television. Vice also operates a network of vertical interest sites such as Noisey - which covers music, creates events and produces music videos in another line item of income - that the publisher says amount to millions more viewers. Vox Media's tech-focused Web site The Verge has more than doubled, to about 7.2 million. Likewise, BuzzFeed has nearly doubled to 22.6 million monthly unique visitors. Monthly unique Internet visitors to Vice have tripled to about 7.5 million, according to measurement firm comScore. In the past year, Vice has made huge Internet traffic gains. Vice, which states it is profitable but does not disclose figures, hauled in more than $175 million in revenue in 2012 and is on track to surpass that figure, according to unnamed sources who were not authorized to speak on behalf of the company. The publisher is adding "dozens" of new correspondents, hosts, producers and editors to build out a new News section and a Vice News YouTube channel. That's what's really been resonating with our audience. "We tell stories that a lot of other people don't tell, and we tell them in a different way. "Our audience is actually saying make more news," Smith says. Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox in August injected $70 million into Vice, swelling the wealth of co-founder and CEO Shane Smith, 44, worth a reported $400 million on a $1.4 billion company valuation. "These are audience-building machines," says Rich LeFurgy, principal at online ad consultancy Archer Advisors. ![]() ![]() Internet traffic-focused BuzzFeed this year attracted $19 million in funding, while Henry Blodget's Business Insider took in $5 million and is rumored for sale at $100 million. In October, Vox Media landed $40 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture firm Accel Partners to expand video efforts at its Web destinations The Verge, SB Nation and Polygon. That adds to its growing network of 34 bureaus worldwide.Įxpansion at Vice comes as cash-strapped traditional publishers struggle with reinvention in the digital era and scores of well-funded online media start-ups emerge. The publisher is building a Venice Beach, Calif., editorial bureau and is staking out San Francisco, focusing on new video production studios. Vice reporters are "one of us" and sometimes what they report really "punches you in the stomach," says Tom Freston, a former Viacom and MTV executive who is an investor and informal adviser to Vice. Vice eschews traditional broadcast news for behind-the-scenes storytelling, offering an alternative to the likes of CNN. Vice has blasted off from scrappy origins as a culture zine out of Canada to an online juggernaut of provocative media whose coverage spans the world's affairs. The Brooklyn-based company's edgy brand of journalism is scoring with Generation Y. Vice's unvarnished view of the world may be the voice of a new generation. SAN FRANCISCO - What do military drones in Pakistan, arms expositions in Jordan and a naked beer-drinking man in Brooklyn have in common? They are all part of the go-anywhere storytelling style of Vice Media.
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