Vice Media in peril as tech giants enhance on-line stranglehold

For years the risk from the web appeared to be that it might kill off newspapers and magazines (which, to a level, it has however not terminally – but.)

Now it appears to be consuming itself. Vice Media is on its final legs with the as soon as on-line pioneer closing down its much-imitated web site and shedding a whole bunch of workers.

CEO Bruce Dixon says: “As we navigate the ever-evolving enterprise panorama, we have to adapt and greatest align our methods to be extra aggressive in the long run. After cautious consideration and dialogue with the board, we have now determined to make some basic adjustments to our strategic imaginative and prescient at Vice.

“We create and produce excellent unique content material true to the Vice model. Nevertheless, it’s now not cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content material the way in which we have now performed beforehand.” Which is wanting on the intense facet, with a vengeance.

Directly level Vice was valued at a dizzy $5.7 billion, with 1,000 workers worldwide.

Advert-supported websites are floundering because the tech giants hoover up adspend with the most recent manifestation, retail media, taking one other large slice of the market. Google’s choice to desert cookies hardly helps and, extra usually, the likes of Google and Fb (and now TikTok) are combating like cats in a sack for market share – no matter the fee to anybody else. If Google took much less fee in its monopoly place as on-line advert gatekeeper, that will assist. However they received’t.

Media businesses, regardless of their occasional protestations about supporting a various vary of titles, are keener than ever to dump their shopper’s cash into the most important operators, those who provide them one of the best offers.

No one actually anticipated this. the motto, possibly, is watch out what you want for.

No phrase but on the destiny of advert company Advantage by Vice.