Did VICE Media Quietly Kill Its Print Magazines?
Its physical publication changed the landscape of news reporting
If you follow the news, you’ve probably seen that Vice has filed for bankruptcy (but is reportedly on the brink of being rescued by investors.) In the meantime, I want to talk about its iconic print magazines that seem to have… disappeared.
Now, admittedly I haven’t subscribed to the print edition recently (which launched in Montreal in 1994) but I did subscribe for years, and the issues always thrilled me when they landed in my mailbox — albeit at sporadic times. No other magazine has possessed the ability to make me hungrily rip off its packaging and dive into it so eagerly.
So I was a bit confused and shocked recently when I went to re-subscribe, but ended up at a dead link. I searched the entire net for any active link to the print magazine, and came up empty.
Vice of course still operates its news website, but IMO it pales in comparison to the beautifully illustrated, long-form journalism pieces that filled the pages of its print editions.
Don’t get me wrong — the web stories are definitely interesting; but from what I can see online, the authors do not immerse themselves in the stories as consistently as the print writers did.
