Vice Media parts with 2 best editors, after layoffs and before an extension

Tuesday, the digital division of Vice Media was upset.

Jonathan Smith, a veteran who had been the editor of Vice.com for three years, was fired, along with site editor Rachel Schallom. In their place, the company announced that Erika Allen, a former Vice Magazine graduate who was recently senior editor at The Cut of New York magazine, was named site editor, while others editors have assumed more extensive roles.

Katie Drummond, who was named Senior Vice President of Digital in March, after serving as Associate Editor at Medium, said she was attracted by growth opportunities.

"The call that is addressed to me is very clear," she said in an interview Tuesday. "It's a brand that can be fearless, tell great stories, have global reach, attract emerging talent."

The company is actually expanding, having published ads for about a dozen additional editorial works, including a news editor, an opinion publisher and an "authoritarian journalist." Ms Drummond added that the restructuring of Vice.com, led by various editorial teams of reporters, meant that it was not expected to appoint a new editor of the site.

These changes are part of Vice Media's efforts to become profitable after a difficult period in which the company laid off 10% of its staff and placed several Vice sites under the Vice.com banner.

Vice Media recently announced that it has raised $ 250 million in debt from investors, including financial billionaire George Soros. The company Walt Disney, which has invested more than $ 400 million in Vice Media for a quarter of the company, said in a securities statement this year that she was not expecting to get a return on this investment.

At one point, Vice Media was worth $ 5.7 billion and Nancy Dubuc, its executive director, said late last year that it would be profitable for the next fiscal year, but its fortunes have deteriorated, Internet giants continue to gobble up the bulk of online advertising revenue.

Vice Media has also been trying to improve its corporate culture since the New York Times A survey conducted in December 2017 found that women had been abused in the company, with more than two dozen employees reporting being victims or witnesses.