Vice Media taps Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala as co-CEOs

Vice Media Group, which owns Vice News, Motherboard, Refinery29 and Vice TV, has promoted execs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala as co-CEOS.

Lokhandwala has held the role of chief strategy officer since 2018, while Dixon has been the company’s chief financial officer since 2021.

The execs succeed Nancy Dubuc, who departed as Vice CEO on Friday, after she helped clean up the company’s reputation as a toxic workplace during her five-year reign.

“Hozefa and Bruce are incredibly experienced and deeply talented executives who enjoy the full trust of Vice’s leadership team and board, and are the right individuals to lead Vice forward,” Vice’s board said in a statement Monday.

“With their combined 10 years of experience at Vice, and their long commitment to the company’s brand, mission and operations, they’re perfectly positioned to guide the company through this next important stage of growth.” 

The new co-CEOs step into the spotlight as the cash-strapped, Brooklyn-based media company prepares to put itself up for sale.

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 announcement comes as Vice recently secured 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, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

Last month, the New York Times reported 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.

In a statement, Lokhandwala and Dixon recognized the challenge before them, adding: “This is an era of tremendous change for media companies, and Vice’s unique brand of news, entertainment and lifestyle content has never been more relevant.  We look forward to building on its success as we chart the next exciting chapter for the company.”  

Founded as Vice Magazine in 1994 by the larger-than-life Shane 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.