Shane Smith was outraged by suggestions that he spent $300,000 on a dinner in Las Vegas.
< p>“It wasn’t a $300,000 dinner,” the tattooed Vice Media founder told the Wall Street Journal in 2016. It was $380,000 plus tips. I broke the record for the most tips in Vegas.”
Smith was at his best, his business was valued in the billions and supported by Rupert Murdoch's Fox.
His interview with the magazine focused on a tour of his new $23 million Spanish colonial mansion in California under the slogan «Living Wide».
Today, however, Smith's comments seem arrogant. After months of trying to find a buyer, Vice, a startup that was once valued at $5.7 billion, is reportedly poised for bankruptcy.
The company's downturn reflects a broader downturn in the digital media world, according to BuzzFeed. . and Insider recently announced layoffs.
“We seem to be at the end of the road for a generation of digital media companies,” says Joseph Tisdale of Enders Analysis.
Vice has been one of the most established brands in the new media landscape that has emerged over the past decade and has attracted a large an audience of young people attracted by its free and provocative coverage.
The publisher has built a brand with sharp coverage of drugs, sex, and war zones.
Despite traditional aversion to such topics, some investors and advertisers have poured money into the companies because of Vice's ability to reach millennials.
The company rode the wave of investment and grew rapidly, creating its own news channel, film studio, advertising agency and record company.
Vice even bought the Old Blue Last pub in Shoreditch, famous for its live music.
But the digital advertising market has declined and new platforms such as TikTok have emerged. , the online publisher plunged into a death spiral.
Advertisers lost interest, and clean-cut Gen Z audiences didn't like his tasteless content.
Last week, Vice closed its World News brand and announced dozens of «painful but necessary» job cuts. According to The New York Times, he is now preparing to file for bankruptcy.
Vice grew from a 1990s Montreal punk magazine to a sprawling youth-oriented media empire.
His popularity was due in large part to his willingness to push boundaries by publishing stories that mainstream publishers were too squeamish or afraid to touch.
In an interview shortly after the UK launch, then-editor Andy Capper said Vice's mission was note «what we should be ashamed of.»
Most often it was related to sex, drugs and bodily functions.
The online publisher sent its journalists on elaborate Gonzo-style reporting trips, producing eccentric films such as Cannibal Warlords of Liberia, in which reporters interviewed rebel leaders in the West African country, and Pharmacopoeia, a television series focusing on psychoactive substances. , created by director Hamilton Morris.