When Vice cofounder Shane Smith disappeared from public view five years ago, it seemed about time.
The swashbuckling entrepreneur had cut a giant swath through media and finance for a decade with the promise of transformative change for news, the claim of millennials’ attention and a vision — or so he said — for building a $50 billion brand.
By that time, Smith himself was set. He’d built an empire, become a boldface name, partied his head off and gotten filthy rich.
The problem was none of it was built to last. So now, as Vice convulses its way forward out of bankruptcy — with Vice TV on life support, Vice.com