CBS News
Vice Media to lay off hundreds of workers as digital media outlets implode
Vice Media will no longer publish content on its website, with the former digital media darling joining BuzzFeed in slashing additional staff this week.
Vice also plans to lay off several hundred workers as it shifts a studio-only business model, CEO Bruce Dixon told employees in a memo delivered late Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The women’s lifestyle site Refinery 29 would continue to run, with Vice in advanced talks to sell the business, Dixon told staffers.
Vice filed for bankruptcy last May before being sold for $350 million to a consortium led by private equity firm Fortress Investment Group, which had been listed as its biggest creditor. Fortress is majority-owned by an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment.
Vice didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Dixon’s missive underlines the startling descent for a media firm once acclaimed for its reporting and emulated by larger industry players eager to reach younger audiences. What started off as an alt-music and culture magazine in the 1990s in Montreal at its height had a market valuation of $5.7 billion, before difficulties began piling up, including management conflicts, a sharp slowdown in online ad spending and plunge in traffic stemming from social media platforms.
What is a WARN notice?
In New York, private companies with 50 or more employees are legally required to give at least 90 days notice before a mass layoff. That’s defined as involving at least 25 full-time employees who represent at least a third of workers during a six-month period, or at least 250 full-time workers.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act also requires employers to provide advance warnings before plants are temporarily or permanently closed or their operations relocated.
Already thinned by multiple rounds of layoffs, BuzzFeed this week said it would sell Complex, a startup company known for covering pop culture, and cut an additional 16% of its staff. Vice and BuzzFeed are among a number of digital outlets announcing layoffs this year. The Messenger closed abruptly in January and Business Insider slashed its staff by 8%.
Traditional media outlets have also pared their ranks, with most major news publishers confronting sharp drops in online traffic as more online users turned to alternatives including TikTok and Instagram. The list of media players announcing layoffs over the past year includes Condé Nast; Los Angeles Times; Paramount Global, the owner of CBS News; Vox Media; Wall Street Journal; and Washington Post.
Media companies announced more than 21,000 job cuts in in 2023, up 467% from the previous year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Of those layoffs, nearly 3,100 were in digital, broadcast and print news.
—The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A new Barbie has joined Mattel’s lineup of inclusive dolls. The first “Diwali doll” was announced by the toymaker on Friday, a few weeks shy of the Hindu holiday of Diwali, also known as the festival of lights.
The festival, which lasts for five days, is marked on Western calendars to begin on Nov. 1, but some celebrations start on Oct. 31.
The doll, created in collaboration with fashion designer Anita Dongre, features traditional elements including the lehenga skirt, floral print and golden shoes, according to Mattel’s website. The doll is available at major retailers for $40.
“The look is infused with beauty and symbolism to rejoice in victory of light over darkness with contemporary silhouettes,” the description reads for the Diwali doll.
Lalit Agarwal, country manager for Mattel India, said in a news release that through the Diwali doll, the brand is hoping to showcase “India’s vibrant cultural heritage on a global stage while continuing to celebrate the power and beauty of diversity.”
Earlier this year, Mattel announced the first-ever blind Barbie doll and a Black Barbie with Down syndrome.
In addition, to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8 and Barbie’s 65th birthday on March 9, the doll brand announced it was adding new dolls to its Role Models collection, based on real-life singers and actresses from around the world. They’re not for sale – a one-of-a-kind doll was made for each of the honored women.
The dolls are meant to introduce “girls to remarkable women’s stories to show them you can be anything,” according to Mattel.
Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves made his professional auto racing debut on Saturday at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“The Matrix” star, who qualified 31st out of 35 cars, ran as high as 21st before a single-car crash a little more than halfway through the 45-minute race briefly stopped him in his tracks.
Darron Cummings / AP
The 60-year-old spun into the grass without a collision on the exit of Turn 9 when he had about 21 minutes of racing left. He re-entered the course and continued driving, signaling he was uninjured.
Reeves finished 25th.
The actor is competing at Indianapolis in the Toyota GR Cup, a Toyota spec-racing series and a support series for this weekend’s Indy 8 Hour sports car event. He has a second race on Sunday.
Darron Cummings / AP
He is driving the No. 92 BRZRKR car, which is promoting his graphic novel “The Book of Elsewhere.” He is teammates with Cody Jones from “Dude Perfect.”
Reeves has previous racing experience as a former participant in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in the celebrity race. Reeves won the event in 2009.
A passenger successfully landed a small plane on Friday after the pilot had a medical emergency, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 was traveling from Henderson Executive Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada to Monterey Regional Airport in California, with a pilot and one other person on board, the FAA said.
The pilot suffered an unspecified medical emergency while flying, the FAA said, forcing the passenger to take the controls and make an emergency landing at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California.
The Kern Fire Department told CBS News affiliate KBAX that firefighters were called to a report of a medical emergency on the plane. The pilot was reported to be “incapacitated,” the fire department said. Firefighters saw the plane approach and land safely, then “chased” the plane down the runway in emergency vehicles to meet it.
The FAA did not release the passenger or pilot’s identities nor give an update on the pilot’s condition. The pilot was taken to an area hospital by ambulance. The passenger did not report any injuries.
The FAA and the National Transportation Security Board will investigate the incident, the FAA said.
