Today we’re talking about Vice, the media company: Where it came from, what it did, and, ultimately, why it collapsed into a much smaller, sadder version of itself. 

This is a lousy time for digital media, and it’s hard to make a profit from putting words on the internet right now. So when Verge senior reporter Liz Lopatto went to go report on what happened, she and I both assumed Vice had been done in by the brutal economics of digital advertising on the web. But the Vice story is more than that — in the word of one executive that talked to Liz, it was a “fucking clown show.” 

Links:

• How Vice became 'a fucking clown show' — The Verge
• Vice is abandoning Vice.com and laying off hundreds — The Verge
• Vice, decayed digital colossus, files for bankruptcy — NYT
• Vice Is Basically Dead — New York Magazine
• Shane Smith and the Final Collapse of Vice News — The Hollywood Reporter
• At Vice, cutting-edge media and allegations of old-school sexual harassment — NYT
• HBO cancels ‘Vice News Tonight,’ severing relationship with Vice Media — CNN
• Shane Smith has a secret multimillion-dollar Vice deal — New York Magazine

Credits: 

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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