Publisher Vice is winding back its Australian operations, including cutting staff and shutting its full-service creative agency Virtue.
Staff at Vice Australia, which once employed 40-50 people, will be significantly reduced with a skeleton staff remaining.
Offices for Virtue, launched in 2010 to work with brands, will be closed in Australia with all staff let go. Instead the agency will be based out of Singapore, Vice’s APAC hub where many of its businesses are now centralised, to service Australia.
The cuts come after Vice Media Group CEO Nancy Dubuc announced last month the laying off 55 employees in the US and another 100 globally, totalling more than 5% of its workforce, although she didn’t outline how Australia would be impacted at the time.
The cuts to its digital business, which accounts for 50% of VMG’s headcount cost but brings in about 21% of its revenue, comes as a result of weakening advertising revenue made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
The media company had already been struggling prior to the pandemic. Last year the Australian offices were also impacted by global cuts, which amounted to 10% of its workforce.
Virtue, which launched as a content agency but shifted to a full-service agency in 2018, had also been struggling before the pandemic hit, according to sources, with a limited client revenue stream.
Media companies have been under increased financial pressure since the lockdowns in response to the pandemic began in March, which caused many brands to slow their marketing.
Last month BuzzFeed Australia and Ten Daily both closed their news operations.
The cuts are not expected to impact SBS Viceland, a channel launched in 2016 in partnership with SBS and Vice.
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