Varietyreportedtoday that VICE Media has lay off about 2 percent of its staff , come to around 60 people , so as to concentrate more on TV operations and expand internationally . While this was get on , the staff of VICE News had a literal field daytime .
A tipster station Gizmodo a Instagram screenshot of VICE News staffers claim the day off work to compete in some fun , friendly , and probably mandatory red - vs - grim team build activities in Brooklyn ’s McCarren Park . Meanwhile , a belt of their coworkers — including VICE Sports’sDavid Rothand Motherboard’sCarl Franzen , who was preparing to go onpaternity leave — were impart an untimely flush . ( Minor revelation : I was an amateur intern for VICE powder store five year ago . My experience was typical . )
VICE is just the latest in a string of media organizations jump-start on the dreaded “ pin to picture ” bandwagon — a trend towards gutting editorial process to chase advertising tax income from video recording operations . Research has shownthat on-line audience typically favour to read their newsworthiness rather than watch it , but video is the morass currently in vogue , and company likeComplex , MTV News , Vocativ , Fox Sportsand others have all but climb over one another to see which can submerge itself neck opening deep the loyal .
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confessedly VICE is a bite of an outlier here : television has always been a huge part of its operation , and in some way , the culmination of those ambitions has been the VICE News Tonight plan on HBO , which has been meet withlukewarm reviews . But the layoffs of several twelve staffers happened just a month after an proclamation that the transnational sensitive behemoth had secured anadditional $ 450 millionin secret fairness funding .
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The bitter satire of VICE News ’s gymnastic outing is that it coincide with the company ’s conclusion to shutter VICE Sports after athree yearrun . Is there any way the timing of this ridiculous party athletic field day could have been more insulting ? I guess they could have hold the layoff encounter on the softball field , but thankfully good taste prevailed .
We ’ve reach out out to VICE for comment and will update if we hear back .
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