Can Vice cosy up to Washington, keep its edge in competition?
WASHINGTON: Perhaps the most anti- establishment thing for a punk like Shane Smith to do is to walk the halls of Congress, rapping on the doors of senators for a few minutes of their time.
But that was precisely what the founder of alternative magazine Vice was doing on a cold and dreary day in Washington this past week. In a light gray suit and charcoal overcoat, the tattooed and biker-bearded media executive was doing his best to fit in with the clean- cut, lanyard-wearing regulars of the Dirksen Senate building.
It’s a scene that was probably unimaginable 20 years ago, when Smith started the counterculture magazine that viewed government, mainstream media and Wall Street with suspicion.
But those assumptions have changed with the rapid growth of Vice into a sprawling global news and entertainment online media firm favoured by millennials and valued at US$ 2.5 billion ( RM9 billion).
Now, as Smith plans an aggressive slate of news projects ahead of the 2016 campaign, he’s on a charm campaign to create relationships in the biggest bureaucracy of all: The US government.
Smith, Vice’s foul-mouthed and hard-partying 45-year- old chief executive, is still more likely to be seen in a black Tshirt, jeans and sneakers most days. But he’s evolving with the maturation of his company — based in the hip Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn — and is mingling more these days with politicians, media titans of Time Warner and Viacom and Silicon Valley financiers. And the most significant sign of that evolution is a new drive to inhabit the orbits of the world’s most powerful institutional centres rather than dissing them from the outside.
“Cool by definition is small. So we can stay in Williamsburg and be the cool guys, or we can attempt to do something more,” Smith said between marathon meetings with senators on Wednesday.
“Why would I be doing this if I didn’t think I could displace the status quo of the largest platforms? As Gen Y moves into general media, I should move with them.”
Vice doesn’t have a corner on the millennial media market. Competition is clipping at its heels, with Buzzfeed, Business Insider and Fusion pushing aggressively into news and politics with the same fast, edgy and whimsical sensibilities that appear to appeal to younger audiences. And Vice will have to work hard to get interviews and build credibility among Washington’s political leaders. Its gonzo- style journalism tests boundaries.
In 2013, Vice travelled to North Korea with former NBA star Dennis Rodman, capturing his interaction with the Great Leader Kim Jong Un and sidestepping US diplomatic channels.
Vice also fiercely defends its impartiality but has drawn criticism for staking positions on the issues it covers, like environmentalism and geopolitics.
Smith is the lead reporter in many Vice news pieces, and he pursues subjects he personally cares about most.
“To say that I’m an environmentalist doesn’t mean that I am right or left. That means I care about the planet. I care about my children being able to swim in a lake and go outside,” Smith said.
But he adds: “Every scientist we meet said you are idiots to say melting in Antarctica isn’t real. It’s like saying gravity is not real.”
Those perspectives need to be more clearly explained to readers, media experts say. And it could deter government and business leaders from participating in stories.
“For Vice, they’ve said, ‘ We aren’t really journalists,’ and now they say, ‘Well maybe we are.’ But you can’t be half in and half out. You can come with your positions, but you have to disclose that clearly and do a good job of explaining it,” said Ken Doctor, a media analyst for Newsonomics.
With an ambition to take on mainstream news giants, the connections Smith makes in Washington will be crucial. Ahead of the 2016 campaign, Vice aims to be the touchstone for youths on hot-button policy issues such as the environment, student debt, racial inequality and the criminal justice system.
Vice President Joe Biden guest starred in the first episode of the third season of Vice’s HBO series, which premieres Friday.
Its online videos will feature more political and policy stories. In meetings with law makers this past week, Smith said he hoped to feature them on the site and build a roster of D.C. sources to feed coverage going forward. — WP-Bloomberg