• The New York Times, Tuesday, April 5, 2011 11:52 AM

Not just a magazine anymore, Vice is shortly expected to announced investment partnerships with WPP, along with MTV co-founder Tom Freston, and the Raine Group, a boutique investment firm. Vice -- which The New York Times calls, "a pan-media confederation with a record label, a book label, its own television series and a full-service media agency" -- is also tapping William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and its chief executive, Ari Emanuel, to represent the company's next phase of growth.

"We've kind of been on the periphery for a long time," Shane Smith, one of Vice's founders. We said it's time to turn on the jets. We'd reached the ceiling of what we can do on our own."

With fresh backing, Vice plans to add to its news and sports divisions, and build large-scale operations in emerging markets like China, India and Brazil. With the next couple of year, Smith says he expects the company's profits to approach $50 million.

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