Vice Media Hires Former NBCUniversal Executive for Studio-Focused Turnaround
Vice, the edgy media company founded in 1994 and known for countercultural stories and documentaries, will continue to focus on 'provocative storytelling,' incoming CEO Adam Stotsky said.
He also wants 'storytelling that can build a long-term, profitable and sustainable media brand in today's landscape.' That means more franchises along the lines of its British crime drama 'Gangs of London' and 'Bama Rush,' a documentary on the sorority rite of passage.
Fortress Investment Group and other lenders acquired the embattled digital publisher after it filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and pursued a series of cost-cutting efforts.
Vice has since refocused its business, shedding assets including Refinery29 and i-D magazine and laying off staff.
'A lot of the sort of messy stuff has been cleaned up,' said Stotsky, who spent nearly two decades at NBCUniversal, including as president of E! Entertainment and Esquire Network. He also recently worked with private equity-backed entertainment companies including Religion of Sports, a sports media venture founded by Tom Brady, Michael Strahan and Gotham Chopra, and Dick Clark Productions, which is now owned by Penske Media.
Bruce Dixon, who had been Vice's CEO, is leaving the company.
Vice's business has several arms: Vice Studios, a scripted and unscripted television production studio; Vice Sports; cable network Vice TV in partnership with A+E; and its advertising operation, which includes Vice Commercials and ad agency Virtue.
'It's going to be really tough for us to compete against Instagram, TikTok and YouTube,' for ad revenue said Michael Lang, Vice's executive chairman and president of Lang Media Group. 'So we're going to create great content for digital platforms, but we're not going to be in the digital platform business itself.'
Lang said Vice is now profitable, and in the next three years he expects Vice's studio business to be a major driver of the company's revenue. Amy Powell, a former executive at Amazon and Paramount Television, was recently named president of Vice Studios.
He said Vice is expanding its Virtue ad agency's presence in Europe, and he is looking to do more with podcasters in the news space, citing the 'Shane Smith Has Questions' video podcast as an example. Smith is the co-founder of Vice and editor in chief of Vice News.
Vice has also partnered with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions on series including 'Calipari: Razor's Edge' about basketball coach John Calipari's first season at the University of Arkansas, and the forthcoming 'NFL Playback,' which looks back at classic games with commentary from celebrities and players, including Manning.
Write to Isabella Simonetti at isabella.simonetti@wsj.com
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