Vice News UK has laid off three online reporters and two foreign correspondents while in the US another 15 staff have also been made redundant.
The cuts have been made under newly appointed global news operations director Josh Tyrangiel, formerly Bloomberg’s chief content officer, who is looking to consolidate the brand’s offering ahead of the launch of a nightly news broadcast on HBO, which he will oversee.
The Vice News UK website, launched in 2014, will retain a team of 18 editorial staff, including production editors, broadcasters, reporters, producers, video journalists and researchers.
The announcement comes as about a dozen staff, including several high-profile names, have been axed by the Telegraph Media Group as part of a so-called “smart working” restructure.
Mass lay-offs have become common place across the newspaper industry in the UK but are much rarer on new media brands.
The cutbacks come as news organisations in the UK have complained that internet giants Google and Facebook are sucking an increasing amount of online advertising away from them.
A Vice News UK spokeswoman said: “The plan in place will expand Vice’s news offerings across digital and TV, continue the recent of wave of newsroom hires, add additional foreign bureaus, and marshal the company’s existing news divisions into one cohesive powerhouse.”
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