Vice faces financial headwinds this year as it tries to achieve a full year of profitability, which would be a milestone for the company. A memo obtained by The Times sent to employees in June by the company’s chief executive, Nancy Dubuc, said the company’s revenue forecast was flat against the same period last year, meaning that the company was “slightly behind” its overall financial target.
“This means being ruthless about areas of the business that are not growing and focusing our energies on areas that are,” Ms. Dubuc wrote.
Vice’s deals with commercial partners have caused internal strife in the past. In 2018, as Vice Media was preparing to introduce a media brand funded by Philip Morris called Change Incorporated, focused on persuading readers to quit cigarettes, members of the company’s communications team drafted a memo raising concerns that the deal could cause “anger, frustration and widespread resentment within Vice,” according to a document obtained by The Times.
The company planned to work with Fleishman Hillard, a public relations firm, to develop a crisis communications plan, according to a document viewed by The Times, and proposed developing a “response site” in the event of a leak. Vice also planned to identify “key opinion leaders” on staff, “expose them” to the project and “take them away for a day or two and get them to absorb all this.”
Richard Tofel, a former news executive at ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal, said news organizations should try to avoid entering into voluntary commercial agreements with governments whenever possible and condemned Mr. Khashoggi’s murder.
But he added that news organizations should also be careful not to draw up a list of “bad guys” and “good guys” because it has the potential to compromise their coverage.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/business/media/vice-saudi-arabia.html
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