MANILA, Philippines – Vice Media is expected to lay off more than 100 jobs, and shut down its flagship Vice News Tonight cable program as part of the company’s restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, April 27, US time. 

The Vice layoffs are the latest in a string of closures and dismissals that have affected the media industry in 2023. ESPN, Insider, Vox Media (The Verge, SB Nation), Washington Post, and News Corp (Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins) all have announced layoffs this year while BuzzFeed News was shut down in April. 

Among those affected in Vice’s layoffs are journalists working in Asia, according to a tweet by Alastair McCready, editor for Vice World News in the Asia-Pacific.

Editor-in-chief for Vice World News, Asia-Pacific, and former Rappler journalist Natashya Gutierrez tweeted that the team brought to life “important, indomitable reporting from this underreported, misunderstood region”:

Vice’s labor group, Vice Union, pinned the blame on management, tweeting that they are devastated over the layoffs, and that “These workers are suffering the consequences of years of poor decisions they played no part.” It said that these won’t be the last layoffs in Vice that will occur. 

“As with every cut VICE makes, we will celebrate our colleagues’ work while lamenting the company’s mismanagement that has resulted in them being let go,” the union said. 

The Wall Street Journal wrote that in an internal note they reviewed, Vice co-CEOs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala said that they are “transforming VICE News to better withstand market realities and more closely align with how and where we see our audiences engaging with our content most.” – Rappler.com