Vice Media

In 1994, Sarush Alvi and Gavin McKinnis printed 5,000 copies of a magazine in Montreal called "Vice." It was free. The magazine had no business model, just attitude, design, and reporting that no mainstream outlet would touch. Smith distributed copies by hand, dropped them at record stores and boutiques. The magazine grew because it spoke to an audience nobody else was listening to. Vice's innovation was branded content. Instead of selling a banner ad for $5 to $20 per 1,000 impressions, Vice pitched brands on producing content that looked like editorial but was actually paid advertising. A campaign cost $500,000 to several million dollars. Vice's content was watched, shared, discussed. The engagement exceeded traditional display ads. By 2017, Vice was valued at $5.7 billion. Revenue had reached roughly $600 million. The model seemed unstoppable. News organizations could not produce branded content at Vice's scale.