Vice Media and the Guardian have formed a content partnership that will provide the former access to investigative news reporting from a unit of Guardian journalists, and in turn, give the UK publication access to Vice’s video production skills, distribution platform and a young engaged audience.
The partnership will include co-branded special reports that will air across Vice’s news offerings, including “Vice News Tonight,” “Vice on HBO” and “Vice Specials,” the hour-long documentary series for HBO.
“When I was a young man studying political science, my International Politics professor told me to get a Guardian subscription because it was ‘the best news in the world.’ I have had one ever since. This partnership provides a test case for the way forward in multi-platform exploitation of content,” Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith said in a statement Thursday. “And when that content is the foremost investigative news in the business it becomes even more imperative. Real, fact-based, trusted news has never been more important and this partnership, I am very excited to say, will provide just that.”
“Guardian journalism has never been more relevant or in demand. This partnership recognizes the Guardian and Vice as pioneers in digital news and underscores our commitment to using video to open up our journalism in new and interesting ways,” Guardian News editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said.
The two media companies will also collaborate on the development of new video formats across genres and platforms. Guardian’s multimedia news editor, Mustafa Khalili, will lead a London-based newsroom team that plans to work closely with Vice on developing this original content.
Smith has said that Vice is gearing up for an IPO.