New York Magazine Publishes A 28 Page Takedown Of "Vice" - Here Are The Bullet Points

Full disclosure I’m a big fan of Vice.  Well, less so since the report of the rampant sexual harassment and sexism around the office came out.  That’s not my bag.  Cast a pretty bad light on them as a company.  But as far as their content I’ve always enjoyed it.  I have no fucking idea what channel Viceland is but when I stumble across it there’s usually something interesting on, like reporters embedded in dangerous places and the Noisey features on Kendrick and Chief Keef.  I also always admired Shane Smith for the company he was able to build up from nothing and because he seemed like a badass (again, before any of these exposes came out.)

Unfortunately for Vice, the latest expose to come out from New York Magazine is pretty damning.  It’s 29 pages long.  That was my morning reading when I was taking a poop.  Smith comes across as a masssssiiveeeee douche, and the working environment at the company seems AWFUL, to put it mildly.  And the crux of the article is that Vice is essentially built on bullshit – sneaky tricks to increase traffic through deals with clickfarms, missed revenue targets, wildly unrealistic valuations.

Here are the TL;DR bullet points from the article.

Built on a bluff

Cocky CROs who didn’t care about “dollar figures”

Scummy founders

Rampant alleged sexual harassment. 

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Shitty pay and overall treatment of employees.

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Pussification of content 

Fake traffic

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Disrespect to women

Unrealistic claims and valuations.

A checked out CEO 

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And this is why there is Barstool and everybody else.  Yeah we’re not worth 5.7 billion like Vice (yet), but according to this author, neither are they really.  They’re built on something fake that is nothing but fluff.  And most importantly, they are (allegedly) a nightmare to work for, a horrible work environment with no respect for employees in general and certainly no respect for women.   Their leader is landing his helicopter at his Entourage house while the people who work for him make $22K to work 22 hours a day.

Meanwhile we have the best fan base in the world, content we put all of our blood, sweat, tears and effort into, and people who love coming to work every single day for a chance to make something great.  And I truly believe this is one of the best, if not the single best, company in the world to work for.  If you show up, do your job, and care about your work, you have the freedom to try anything you want, with the full support of your bosses.  The advertising team caters to what you want to do instead of the other way around.   The CEO texts you personally to check on your health, compliment you on something you did for the day, or even to just ask you if you’re happy.  And we take a ton of pride in our office environment.  We are respectful to every guest who walks through the door and, even more importantly, to every woman that works here.  No one has a bad word to say about our behavior here, and I have had 3 female employees tell me personally that they can’t believe how much more comfortable they feel here than their last job at XYZ major media company.  People who can’t separate edgy content designed to give people an escape on the internet from real life people who respect one another and just want to make people laugh can’t understand that, but fuck em.   Let them keep writing their hit pieces and we’ll keep growing while they go bankrupt.

I’d take that over a fake valuation based on nothing that people are terrified to work for any day.

At least when Dave lands his private jet at his Nantucket house our paychecks still cash.