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August 7, 2023

Vice News editor in chief and deputy editor to depart following sale

It follows the departure of four senior editorial staffers in the US last week.

By Bron Maher

The London-based editor-in-chief and deputy editor of Vice News have handed in their notice, according to Semafor.

Youth-oriented Vice Media Group was recently bought out of bankruptcy by a group of its lenders, including Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital.

The purchase, which closed on Monday 31 July, was followed by the departure of four senior US-based editorial staff: senior vice president of global news and entertainment Katie Drummond, Motherboard editor in chief Jason Koebler, executive editor Emanuel Maiberg and senior director of global news operations Matthew Schnipper.

On Tuesday, the London-based deputy editor of Vice News, Helen Nianias, announced she had handed her notice of departure to the company. Press Gazette understands editor-in-chief Matthew Champion also informed Vice of his intention to depart last week.

As well as Champion and Nianias, on Sunday night Semafor said that two Vice senior reporters – New York-based Carter Sherman and London-based Sophia Smith Galer – had notified the company they would be leaving.

Smith Galer, a former BBC journalist who has been a prominent advocate for news publishers getting to grips with Tiktok, declined to comment on Semafor’s report.

In April – a month before the company announced bankruptcy – Vice News announced it was making “painful but necessary” job cuts, including 23 UK jobs which were put at risk of redundancy.

A threatened two-day strike was called off in June when Vice UK agreed to improve the redundancy package from statutory redundancy pay plus £2,000 to the statutory sum plus £5,000.

[Read more: Vice UK staff cancel strike after redundancy terms improve]

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