There's been a lot said about cancel culture and Gen Z have a lot of complaints about their bosses. We have to show people why it's fucking terrible. I used to feel that about my environmental pieces or going to war zones. I'm going to build this thing or if there's a story that concerns me, I'm going to tell that story and people are going to watch it and hopefully that's going to change things. I always say, happiness comes from the future. Is there anything you wish you'd done differently? That doesn't seem to be being bandied about as a news item as it should it be. If I would have a criticism it's, we just fought this war that cost trillions of dollars and affected millions of people but ended up with the Taliban having more territory then they had before. If legacy media aren't going there, then a lot of young people are. You're trying to get old Shane out of his old dusty cage. What do you think about the wider news media and their lack of boots on the ground? Vice News picked up a lot of Emmys this year and has done a good job covering Afghanistan. If you look at "Squid Game," it's sort of proof positive of international content and how it's being accepted. All I want to do is get out there and sell. The time has past, thank God, and Nancy has done a tremendous job. I'm no longer the avatar, nor do I want to be. It's how I can most dramatically help the company. I'm the number one sales and marketing person in the company.
I haven't been doing press, but I've been doing sales and marketing. Why have you stayed in the background these past few years? If we can forecast out that same growth in 2023, then we are one of the hottest media companies to invest in. If the timing comes along and we're planning blistering 2022 and traffic and events do what we think they're going to do, then the sky's the limit. The board and the management team said, the SPAC market has shit the bed, and we shouldn't be doing this. Once you grow to a certain size, it's sort of an inevitability. Vice recently ended talks to go public via a SPAC. Smith, left, and Suroosh Alvi, right, at the Webby Awards in 2016 in New York. Virtue is also going to have double-digit growth in 2022. Digital, publishing - which will have double-digit growth - but also studios, which will have double digit growth. So yes, we are profitable in the fourth quarter and slated to be profitable in 2022. We had to grow our audience and our traffic, but at the same time we have to make money. When we moved to the US, we thought we could grow faster if we raised money faster. Will 2022 be Vice's first profitable year, as the company projects? I've concentrated on revenue and deals and Vice World News and working with the news team. She's done an incredible job of shaping the culture and communicating to the whole company, which is something I wasn't great at. It was about owned and operated, and now it's about all off-platform. Millennials and Gen Z aren't the same you have to change your hosts, the way you speak. If you look at COVID, revamping, changing cultures, and the changing media landscape, it's jumping from iceberg to iceberg. When I begged Nancy to come on board, I said, concentrate on content and revenue because everything is going to try to take you away from those two things. Describe what Nancy Dubuc, the CEO, has done and the role you've played. You stepped back and became executive chairman in 2018 to focus on content and deals. Vice is a big, big company now, but it's got the youngest audience out there. We changed the whole business model from publishing to digital and news, and then became the millennial whisperers, and now our largest audience is Gen Z. If we kept it my baby, Gen X, we'd be dead long ago. We've done a good job on giving it over to the interns. Before, we'd say we're the challenger brand and at some point we'll be big and people will challenge us and that's the way things go. In his first media interview since, edited for length and clarity, he talked about how Vice has evolved from its early days as a brash media company for millennials, what he's doing behind the scenes, and if he has any regrets. Shane Smith is still running the show at the company he cofounded, Vice Media Group, since giving up the CEO role in 2018 and later, his controlling shares. Despite Vice's SPAC talks ending, Smith predicted a strong year of growth ahead for the company.In a rare interview, he made the investment case for Vice, saying it's successfully evolved its business and audience.Vice cofounder Shane Smith relinquished his controlling shares in the company but remains involved in sales and marketing.
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