Of virtue and...

...THE BAD-BOY BRAND

To some, it’s the way Vice works with brands, rather than its reporting style, that makes its journalism suspect. “If anything, Vice sold out years ago, when it began to build up an internal creative agency,” Nick Denton, the publisher of Gawker Media, wrote, in 2011. “Vice is no longer an editorial organization and hasn’t been for a while.” Smith is dismissive of the idea that its branded content compromises its editorial vision. He said, “Part of the reason Vice is successful is because we have cash to make stuff. Everyone else is just fucking wandering around trying to find budgets to make their dream project.” It costs money to investigate homeless populations in Bogotá’s sewer system, the war in Syria, and floating-garbage islands in the Pacific Ocean. At one point, he told me, “Anyone who is in the media game and says, ‘I don’t want to make money,’ is basically saying, ‘I don’t want to work.’ ’Cause money makes media.”