[LINK] "Can Vice Save the Media from the Business Insider?"

[rfmcdonald]

I was pointed to Lizzie Widdicombe's recent article in The New Yorker, "The Vice guide to the world", Rebecca Greenfield's article at The Atlantic Wire, "Can Vice Save the Media from the Business Insider?". Both articles, examining the success of Montréal-based Montreal-based Vice magazine in becoming a global multimedia empire, are worth reading. Greenfield's shorter summary of Widdicombe's article is worth quoting.

Vice gets a much more favorable treatment from Lizzie Widdicombe, in large part because what it produces resembles the longform, original reporting that magazines like The New Yorker pride themselves on. "In recent years, Vice has been engaged in an energetic process of growing up—both commercially and in terms of journalistic ambition," she writes. After all, it got a huge, expensive scoop, getting some American media into North Korea, didn't it? "Look, the fact that he came is a big deal. The fact that we’re the only people to meet him is a big deal. The fact that we went to his house was a really big deal," argues CEO Shane Smith, referring to Kim Jong Un. The fogies at the big magazine companies may have reservations on how Vice presents its stories (and now its HBO show) but, as Widdicombe writes, "Vice’s biggest novelty is not its unruly journalistic techniques but its ability to make money in the Internet age."

While that might calm the likes of The New Yorker, it shouldn't. As Widdicombe relays, Vice relies on a different kind of business model that blurs the ethical lines between journalism and corporate sponsorship to a degree that would easily become scandal at most established outlets. Vice has no compunction about using its journalism to help make big bucks at its record label, book and film divisions, web sites, and in-house ad agency. In short: "Vice’s profits—which a source estimates were $40 million last year—seem to be dependent on securing and maintaining partnerships with a few major corporate clients," explains Widdicombe. That's a set-up that involves some compromises. Even its relationship with HBO, which is producing and airing a Vice television show, is filled with the types of compromises a news outlet doesn't want to make. Smith agreed to a certain concession because Bill Maher, who was providing supplementary material for the show, wouldn't like it. "Yeah," Smith said. "We’ll move the bear."