Who Owns VICE?

Vice's journalism earned significant recognition during its peak years. The HBO series Vice won multiple Emmy Awards including Outstanding Informational Series, and Vice News Tonight earned additional Emmy recognition for its documentary coverage. The company's documentaries and international reporting collected duPont, Peabody, and Overseas Press Club honors during the 2010s.

Vice Studios has since continued producing award-recognized content, including documentary features distributed through major platforms. The brand's cultural impact was recognized at its peak through inclusion in various media innovation rankings, and co-founder Shane Smith's own on-camera work earned individual journalism recognition before his departure.

Vice's controversies are among the most extensive of any modern media brand. The most serious involved workplace culture: a 2017 New York Times investigation documented a pattern of sexual harassment and misconduct at the company, leading to multiple settlements and the eventual departure of co-founder and CEO Shane Smith in 2018. The reckoning was among the earliest and most damaging in the media industry's post-Weinstein period.

The company's financial collapse itself constitutes a controversy of sorts: Vice burned through more than $1.5 billion in investment from blue-chip backers including Disney and private equity firm TPG before the 2023 bankruptcy, one of the largest value destructions in modern media history. Creditors ultimately converted debt into the $350 million acquisition that controls the company today.

Editorial controversies recurred through the brand's history, from early content that pushed boundaries in ways that aged poorly to later disputes over sourcing and editorial independence. The current ownership has worked to distance the operation from this history through leadership changes and a narrower editorial focus, though the legacy remains part of the brand's public record.