Vice Debuts a Subscription Product and Relaunches Its Print Magazine

The digital media company Vice relaunched its print magazine and debuted its first subscription product on Tuesday, part of a broader renaissance of the publisher following its May 2023 bankruptcy filing. The revival is the byproduct of a joint venture between Vice Media and Savage Ventures, which acquired the rights to Vice’s digital properties in May for an undisclosed price. Called Vice Digital Publishing, the joint venture includes the titles Vice, Munchies, Noisey, and Motherboard, as well as associated social media assets and video. Vice Media, which has operated uninterrupted throughout the bankruptcy proceedings, includes Vice Studios, the ad agency Virtue, Pulse, and Vice TV. Vice Media is run by a consortium of Vice’s former lenders, led by Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management, and Monroe Capital. The relaunch of the print magazine, which has been on hiatus since 2019, coincides with the 30th anniversary of Vice. Its first release, a photography issue, will feature the work of 20 up-and-coming photographers from across the world, according to general manager John Montoya. “Announcing the return of the magazine will feel like a real line in the sand, which will help the audience understand that Vice hasn’t gone away,” Montoya said. “It’s an opportunity for us to talk about the new era of Vice that we’re building.” The magazine will only be available to paying subscribers, a departure from its historical distribution strategy, which gave the print product away freely and monetized it through ads. It will be released quarterly, with the second issue dropping in January 2025. With the launch, the publisher joins a growing stable of digital publishers—including The Onion, Nylon, Saveur, and Complex—to introduce or reissue print products, which serve variously as marketing vehicles, advertising surfaces, and subscription perks. The return of the magazine and launch of the subscription product mark a new era for Vice, whose relentless pursuit of scale once epitomized the previous generation of digital media. Its revised commercial strategy, which more heavily prizes reader revenue, reflects the new calculus of the industry. Print and subscription details The new Vice subscription product will offer two tiers. The first, which costs $10 per month, will entitle the subscriber to the print issue and provide them access to exclusive digital content, including extended versions of forthcoming documentaries, new video series, and rebooted columns from iconic writers. The second tier, which costs $4 per month, will provide access to only the exclusive digital content. Despite the new paywall, the vast majority of the website will remain free to access. The idea to reintroduce the print magazine as a direct-to-consumer product came from two data points, according to Montoya. First, internal research found that fans of the brand considered the return of the print product a compelling incentive to subscribe. Likewise, Savage Ventures has seen success employing a similar strategy with other publishers in its portfolio, which includes niche titles like Drummerworld and The Tonic. The strategy will enable Vice to operate the print product more economically, according to media analyst Jacob Donnelly. Montoya notes that Vice Digital Publishing hopes to generate 10,000 paying subscribers by the end of Q1 2025 and 20,000 subscribers by October 2025. Still, print reintroductions present their own set of challenges. Even if the direct model manages to break even on schedule, media firms have to consider the opportunity costs of such a venture, according to Donnelly. And creating a print product that readers are willing to pay for is far more challenging than producing one they will read for free—a muscle Vice has not had to develop until now. “The best way to know if you’re serving your audience is to see if you can get money out of them,” Donnelly said. “You have to care about something to pay for it.” Aware of these challenges, Vice Digital Publishing has upgraded large swaths of its technology stack. Vice moved to a new website in August, and its web traffic has since risen 50%, according to Montoya. The food title Munchies will soon get a new platform as well. The publisher is also introducing a slate of new video and text series—all in front of the paywall. It has recommissioned a classic skateboarding series, called Epicly Later’d, and a drug-related program, called the War on Drugs Show. Munchies will debut a new series with host Farideh Sadeghin in November, and Vice plans to introduce around six new documentaries called Vice Specials. “The magazine has been the heart of the brand since its launch,” Montoya said. “We want to embrace our roots while still supporting Vice’s dedication to pushing creativity forward.”

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Vice Debuts a Subscription Product and Relaunches Its Print Magazine

The publisher hopes to reach 10,000 subscribers by next spring

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