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by criddell 1125 days ago
> Some years ago they had a large audience

Were the numbers good though? Was it sustainable?

1 comments

Not long ago things were looking great:

> 2012 revenue of $175 million, 2014(e) revenue of $500 million, 2016(e) revenue of $1 billion(!)

> "[P]rofit margins targeted to widen to 50% of sales from 34% now"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2014/03/31/...

I had to take a look and those estimates were wildly optimistic.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/06/inside-vice-media-sh...

Near the end is this:

> But the underlying driver of Vice’s success has always been the close connection between its editorial work and its work for brands.

I’m not sure their great investigative journalism was ever self-sustaining.

Wars end and it must be difficult to convince Simon Ostrovsky and Ben Anderson to stay on or even captain their own ship in the fleet let alone get Morris to do something other than pharmacopia.