Nancy Dubuc out as Vice Media CEO after 5-year run

Cash-strapped Vice Media is losing its chief executive as the Brooklyn-based company prepares to put itself up for sale.

Nancy Dubuc departed as Vice CEO on Friday after helping clean up the company’s reputation as a toxic workplace during her five-year reign.

A rep for Dubuc declined to comment but said her contract was up. Vice did not comment on the exec’s contract or on who would succeed her.

“Nancy joined Vice at a pivotal time and put in place an exceptional team that has positioned the company for long-term success,” the company’s board of directors said in a statement. “We thank Nancy for her many contributions and will soon announce new leadership to guide Vice forward into its next stage of growth and transformation.”

News of Dubuc’s departure was first reported by Deadline.

A former CEO of A+E, Dubuc joined Vice in 2018, replacing co-founder Shane Smith, who became executive chairman.

When she joined the company, it was battling a slew of sexual harassment allegations in the predominantly male workplace. Vice, which struggled to show rapid growth to live up to its bloated $5.7 billion valuation, was also coming off a major revenue miss and dealing with a steady stream of executive departures.

During her tenure, Dubuc led a massive restructuring of the company and improved its balance sheet.

“I am proud to leave a Vice better than the one I joined,” Dubuc said in her memo to staffers Friday. “We reduced overhead by half and yet improved the quality of our revenues through both increased profitability and growth of returning revenues.”

She continued: “Most important, while there’s still much work to be done, Vice is a more diverse and inclusive environment than ever.”

Despite Vice’s financial improvements, the beleaguered company — which has assets that include Vice News, Motherboard, Refinery29 and Vice TV — is struggling amid a challenging advertising environment that has squeezed publishers.

Last month, Dubuc told the New York Times that Vice was still unprofitable and that it would likely lay off staff this year, joining the likes of digital publishers BuzzFeed, Bustle Digital Group and Vox Media. Citing a source, the newspaper reported that Vice generated $600 million last year — $100 million short of its $700 million target.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Vice recently got a $30 million loan from Fortress Group to help it pay off millions of dollars it owes to vendors and advisers — some of whom haven’t been paid for more than six months.

Last month, Vice’s board announced a process to sell — an acquisition of the whole company, a strategic recapitalization, or other transactions involving individual assets.

The plans come after a May 2022 report that Vice had hired financial advisers to put the company up for sale.

Founded as Vice Magazine in 1994 by the larger-than-life Smith, the company steadily made its push to video and TV. By 2013, Vice had its own weekly news show on HBO. Three years later, it launched a cable channel, Viceland, which slumped in the ratings.

Under Smith, Vice had big dreams of becoming a media juggernaut with revenue touching $1 billion by 2015. But a series of critical reports in 2018 on how Vice was built on bluffs and smoke and mirrors by Smith, who reportedly oversaw a toxic work environment for female staff, tarnished the company and its founder.

Vice’s fortunes were souring and by 2019, the HBO show and the cable channel were canceled, news leaked out that Vice ponied up $1.87 million to settle a pay-disparity class-action lawsuit filed by female employees, and Smith was replaced by Dubuc.