Vice Media

Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. As of April 2024,^[update] Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Viceland); Virtue (an agency offering creative services); and Vice Digital (digital content). It was cited as the largest independent youth media company in the world, with 35 offices.

The original Vice magazine was founded and based in Montreal and co-founded by Suroosh Alvi, Shane Smith, and Gavin McInnes. Developed from the magazine, Vice Media expanded primarily into youth and young adult-focused digital media. This included online content verticals and related web series, a news division, a film production studio, and a record label, among other properties. Vice re-located to New York City in 2001.

Vice News was known for broadcasting news programs on HBO; including the Emmy-winning weekly self-titled documentary series, which premiered in April 2013, and features segments on global issues hosted by co-founders Smith and Alvi, and a rotating cast of correspondents. A spin-off, Vice News Tonight, premiered 10 October 2016 and showcased a nightly roundup of global news, technology, the environment, economics, and pop culture while eschewing traditional news anchors.

On 10 June 2019, HBO announced Vice News Tonight's cancellation, in addition to ending relations with Vice Media, after a seven-year partnership. In August 2019, it was reported that the company was laying off staff as part of a shift towards news that would involve merging Viceland and Vice News. In April 2023, it was announced that Vice Media was restructuring and downsizing its news division. A month later, Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and agreed to be acquired by a consortium led by Fortress Investment Group for $350 million in June.

In February 2024, CEO Bruce Dixon announced additional layoffs and that Vice.com would cease publishing content. In July 2025, Vice published new content. Vice has since partnered with other media companies, such as Savage Ventures, to distribute its content.

Voice (later Voices of Montreal) was founded by Alix Laurent of Interimages Communications in October 1994, with Suroosh Alvi as editor and Gavin McInnes as assistant editor, with Shane Smith joining the magazine's staff later. The magazine focused on Montreal's alternative cultural scene, to compete with the already established Montreal Mirror. Alvi, McInnes and Smith bought out the publisher and changed the magazine's name to Vice in 1996.

As the magazine became more successful, the company received an investment of $4 million by Canadian investor Richard Szalwinski and Vice relocated to New York City in 1999. In 2001, the co-founders bought Vice back and moved to new offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In 2006, on the advice of creative director Spike Jonze, Vice began expanding into digital video, launching new video service VBS.tv as a joint venture with MTV Networks. VBS gained a fan base with shows like The Vice Guide To Travel, Epicly Later'd, Toxic and Hamilton's Pharmacopeia.