Current affairs channel Vice News, the video news division of Millennial-focused counterculture media company Vice Media, has slashed 15 staff positions in its New York and Los Angeles bureaus, including producers, writers and editors.
The news division, which produces a weekly TV program for HBO, has also allegedly cut its entire United Kingdom-based editorial team, as well as two foreign correspondents.
The news was first reported by Politico.
The layoffs come as part of a wider reorganizational effort taking place at the media company’s news imprint. Josh Tyrangiel, former editor and chief content officer of Bloomberg Businessweek, has now been appointed by parent Vice Media to oversee the company’s entire news division, which includes the weekly HBO program “Vice News,” and a forthcoming HBO daily program of the same name. Tyrangiel left Bloomberg Businessweek in October to spearhead Vice News' development.
In a statement to Politico, the media company said the reorganization of its news division would ultimately result in additional staff.
"The plan in place will expand VICE's news offerings across digital and TV, continue the recent of wave of newsroom hires, add additional foreign bureaus and marshal the company's existing news divisions into one cohesive powerhouse," the company wrote in a statement.
Politico reported that Vice in 2016 plans to open new bureaus in San Francisco and Hong Kong.
Brooklyn-based Vice Media, which in addition to owning Vice News, also publishes Vice magazine, television channel Viceland, and a book imprint and record label, in 2013 was the subject of a $70 million equity investment from Rupert Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox, and the following year received an additional $200 million investment from Hearst/Disney-ABC joint venture A&E Networks.
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