Vice Media

In nineteen ninety-four, Shane Smith printed five thousand 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 five to twenty dollars per thousand impressions, Vice pitched brands on producing content that looked like editorial but was actually paid advertising. A campaign cost five hundred thousand to several million dollars. Vice's content was watched, shared, discussed. The engagement exceeded traditional display ads. By two thousand and sixteen, Vice was valued at five point seven billion dollars. Revenue had reached roughly six hundred million. The model seemed unstoppable. News organizations could not produce branded content at Vice's scale.