Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/
It came as a wave of shock in February for many journalists throughout the world when famous Indie media website VICE Media announced that it is going to shut down soon and will be deleting thousands of stories written on various topics ranging from pop culture to mental health will be deleted soon without any warning and cease publishing any new pieces which basically is killing off its editorial branding and identity.
CEO Bruce Dixon officially made a statement later by stating that many employees working at Vice will be laid off soon and they look to partner with other media companies to distribute their digital content on their global platform with a strategic shift to realign their resources.He further stated it would be no longer cost-effective for the company to publish and distribute it’s content on digital platform and would lay more emphasis on social platforms and apply different strategies for content distribution and will follow a studio model.
VICE media which was established in the year 1994 in Montreal soon expanded it operations into various parts of the world including Asia Pacific region due to its out of the box content primarily focusing on the youth and Indie content which struck a chord with the Millennials and Gen Z readers.This news comes after many digital platforms such as Buzzfeed News officially announced their shutdown last year with several other digital media platforms as result of the rise of Utopian ideology from magical thinking.
VICE which found a perfect balance of journalism and digital influencer in today’s age for a certain period of time and started witnessing its downfall in 2023 after the company had filed for bankruptcy.Often Indie and Digital media outlets rely upon alternative revenue sources like subscriptions and crowdfunding and sometimes changes in consumer behaviour or economic downturns severely affect their revenue and funding sources, therefore making it difficult to sustain their operations.
What brings into the picture is the question that ‘Is Indie Media officially dead’. While Indie media does face multiple challenges like competition with bigger mainstream media outlets and changes in digital media consumption habits.Digital media platforms which basically came into existence in the 90s and 2000s with the decline of Newspapers and people switching to digital and uncensored forms of news.
Since Digital and Indie media which started creating a significant impact by amplifying marginalised voices and alternative perspectives and serving niche audiences.Independent media also faces multiple challenges in establishing themselves as a credible source of information when in competition with mainstream media outlets.But with free press dying and many media houses being bought and lack of Freedom of Speech and Expression, the digital news also started witnessing decline.According to a New York Times report in April 2020, Under the Modi government,India’s Press was no longer free anymore.
Similarly the downfall of Buzzfeed and VICE shows the media scenario which once forced the media outlets to modernise and change the face of journalism by paving a way for many independent and freelance journalists, bloggers, content creators to contribute to its digital content therefore providing alternative perspectives to grassroots journalism, soon witnessed its downfall by too much reliance on internet. Often Indie media outlets find it extremely challenging to stand out and carve a niche for themselves in an over crowded environment dominated by larger and mainstream players.
For many freelance journalists digital media platforms like VICE proved to be a way into journalism and storytelling as a media alternative which tried to fill gaps and under-represented perspectives in news coverage through thought-provoking journalism and established itself in the media landscape worldwide through social media and its digital services and somehow digital platforms like Buzzfeed and Vice managed to change the way people consume news entertainment.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.