Seven days ago, Nancy Dubuc, chief executive officer of VICE Media, sent an email to her employees. The subject line read: “Global Reorganization”.

In the email, Dubuc wrote about several of VICE’s recent accomplishments. These included VICE Studios’ film The Report, the soon-to-be-launched VICE Live, and the double-digit traffic increase in views, watch time and subscribers across the digital business. The email also spoke about VICE’s marketing and advertising arm, Virtue, becoming the “go-to shop for brand strategy and creative excellence among the largest of blue chip brands, having attracted 20 major new clients in 2018”.

The email also announced the need to make hard but essential operating decisions. This, the email said, was necessary to cement VICE’s place in the future. “Starting today, the next phase of our plan begins as we organise our global workforce. Unfortunately, this means we will have to say goodbye to some of our VICE colleagues. In this strategic restructure, some departments will get smaller and others will expand.”

Dubuc’s email was followed by an email from Hosi Simon, CEO, VICE Asia Pacific. Among other things, Simon addressed Asia as a huge commercial, growth and cultural opportunity for VICE and the need to “future-proof the rapid successes and growth” that the organisation’s efforts in Asia were experiencing across business lines—VICE studios, Virtue, to Digital, TV, and News. He also acknowledged the layoff as a very difficult moment for everyone.  

On February 7, nearly 30 VICE India employees were let go, including members from the editorial, video and research/social media team. Newslaundry hasn’t been able to independently verify this number. With Rituparna Som, VICE India’s editor-in-chief, also being let go, the Mumbai editorial team will now report to Singapore-based Natashya Gutierrez, the editor-in-chief at VICE Asia Pacific, who joined the company in August 2018.

Things at the Mumbai office were set in motion with an email on February 6. Roshni Dutta, Senior Manager, VICE Media, had written to VICE’s Mumbai staffers to be in the office by 10 am on February 7. In the brief email, Dutta also informed the employees that both Hosi and Chanpreet were in the city. Chanpreet Arora is the CEO of VICE India and Hosi Simon is VICE Asia Pacific’s CEO.

Given that VICE’s decision to cut 10 per cent (approximately 250 people) of its workforce made headlines, employees were expecting organisational changes. However, employees said that the scale of layoffs was surprising. “We knew few people would be let go,” says an employee who was let go. Several employees that Newslaundry spoke to confirmed that almost everyone from the video creative team was let go in addition to two members from the editorial team. Employees who have been laid off will work with VICE India until the end of the month or until the completion of their respective projects.

Describing how the exit conversations played out, the employees said that it was done in a nice way. “They did the best they could do,” one employee said. Another said: “It is just an unfortunate situation,”

The company has offered to help employees connect with other work opportunities. They’ll receive a severance package equivalent to two-and-half months (or more, for some) of their respective salaries. The employees point out that unlike in the US, their email accounts weren’t deactivated with immediate effect.

Reasons for restructuring

In an email response to Newslaundry, Josh Gardiner, head of communications at VICE Media, explained the company is restructuring around its five business priorities: “film and TV production unit VICE Studios, its international news team fueled by VICE’s relationship with HBO, the digital business, the TV operation led by Viceland, and ad agency Virtue”. So VICE will now focus on film and television production, as well as branded content.

Gardiner said the company is restructuring its global workforce into one built around these business priorities—a move away from siloed international offices. Dubuc’s email had highlighted the same thing: “We are creating a new operating structure around global lines of business … this shift centralises many roles and eliminates overlap.” This could explain what employees have described as a pivot away from hyperlocal India stories to larger themes catering to an overall Asian crowd.

Gardiner also said the company [VICE Media] will see more cuts in the coming weeks—across all departments, levels and lines of businesses. This will impact VICE’s administrative and business support functions, from IT to TV, editorial to legal.

One of the employees told Newslaundry that changes had been set in motion as early as November, around the time of Gutierrez’s hiring. “Since Gutierrez’s hiring, it became progressively clear that India wouldn’t have its independent voice, it would be part of VICE Asia. They started pushing us away from hyperlocal stories—which was a focus earlier—to stories on larger themes such as LGBT and gender that relate and appeal to audiences beyond India.” This Asia focus gained prominence in December 2018 and could be seen in changes to VICE Asia’s say in budget approvals, the employee said.

In his February 2 email addressing the creation of “One Asia”, Simon had written: “Today, we are creating One Asia – this means we will be organised and connected through all our lines and business, not separated by language, culture, and territorial borders. One VICE.”

The layoffs at VICE are only part of a larger trend where digital media companies are trimming their workforce. Recently, layoffs were also announced at Buzzfeed and Verizon. The latter will trim 7 per cent of the workforce—about 800 people—from its media unit, which includes HuffPost, Yahoo and AOL. With Facebook and Google taking up a bulk of digital advertising revenue, the layoffs aren’t altogether surprising. The duo, along with Amazon, captured 62 per cent of the digital advertising market in the US last year. For ad-dependent companies such as VICE and Buzzfeed, this can prove to be quite a challenge. The Wall Street Journal reported that VICE Media’s revenue is expected to be $600-650 million—on par with 2017 and roughly flat for 2018.

Earlier this month, the Hollywood Reporter had attributed these cuts to Dubuc’s strategic plan to tighten spending and achieve profitability.

Newslaundry has reached out to VICE India’s Roshni Dutta. This story will be updated if and when she responds.