• by Ray Schultz , May 15, 2023

Vice Media has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but will continue operating under the voluntary petition, the apparent goal being to facilitate a sale to a group of creditors. 

The creditors, including Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Growth Capital, submitted a $225 million bid. The company is in default from a $250 million loan provided in 2018 by Fortress and Soros Fund Management.

Vice will receive debtor-in-possession funding from the Lender Consortium  totaling $20 million.

However, major investments from Disney and TPG “will be rendered worthless by the bankruptcy,” the New York Times writes. 

Vice Media notes that  all of its media brands, including VICE Studios, VICE TV, Virtue, VICE.com, Refinery29 and i-D, will continue to produce content across planforms during the sales process. 

In addition, the company will pay vendors and suppliers in full under "normal terms for goods and services provided on or after the date of the bankruptcy filing."

Not included in the Chapter 11 filing are the firm's international entities and the Vice TV joint venture with A&E.

The petition is on file with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. 

"We will have new ownership, a simplified capital structure and the ability to operate without the legacy liabilities that have been burdening our business," co-CEOs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala say, "We look forward to completing the sale process in the next two to three months and charting a healthy and successful next chapter at Vice."

In April, Vice Media said it would bw pulling the plug on Vice News Tonight newscast in May and reportedly conducted company-wide layoffs totaling 250.  

“To be incredibly clear, Vice News is core to Vice Media Group and fundamental to our business,” said an internal staff memo from co-CEOs Bruce Dizon and Hozefa Lokhandwala. “We are NOT exiting the news business, but we are changing the shape of Vice News to position the whole Company for long-term opportunities and improve how we deliver important, ground-breaking journalism well into the future.”

Vice is not the only digital news platform to experience problems. 

In April, BuzzFeed said it was shuttering its news division, leaving the profitable HuffPost as its only news brand,  and laying off 15% of total staff.