Vice Media is partnering with Nashville-based Savage Ventures in an effort to relaunch the media company’s digital properties, including Vice.com, the company announced Thursday.
The new partnership will see Savage Ventures investing “tens of millions of dollars,” into the joint venture, where Vice will have branding control without complete management responsibility. The structure will allow Vice to continue to transition into a media company structured around a studio model.
This marks the first efforts by Vice Media to re-establish its digital brand after a tumultuous year for the company.
Vice was sold to a Fortress-led consortium for $350 million in July 2023, including owners Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital. The acquisition of Vice came after a tumultuous financial year for the digital media outlet, where the company filed for Chapter 11 that May. Savage Ventures was one of the companies that explored buying Vice out of bankruptcy.
Then in February, Vice Media shuttered its news operations, laying off several hundred staffers and transitioning to a “studio model,” partnering with “established media companies to distribute our digital content, including news, on their global platforms.”
The media company has since been offloading assets, with just last month, Vice Media selling Refinery29 to Sundial Media Group, following the sale of i-D Magazine to Karlie Kloss.
Going forward, Vice will focus on the studios group, Vice TV, the cable entertainment television network operated in partnership with A+E, and ad agency Virtue.
Savage Ventures manages brands including outdoors.com, 247health.com and americansongwriter.com, which Vice Media sees as perfect partners to boost exposure and generate lifestyle content.
“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to partner with [CEO] Bruce [Dixon] and the Vice Media team on relaunching Vice Digital,” Sam Savage, CEO of Savage Ventures, said in a statement. “The Vice brand remains an important cultural icon, and we intend to honor its legacy of compelling storytelling as we shepherd it into the new media landscape.”
Dixon said in a statement, “There is intrinsic value in the Vice brand and finding the right partner to re-energize our Vice digital assets is important to our continued growth. Savage Ventures presented us with a unique opportunity to re-energize Vice’s digital businesses. This structure allows us to leverage Savage’s leading expertise and furthers our vision to produce compelling original content that entertains while pushing boundaries.”
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