Vice Canada hit with round of layoffs
Just six months after more than 20 staff were laid off, Vice Canada is facing another round of significant job cuts.
Vice spokesperson Ian Fried confirmed that in total, 23 positions were eliminated this week.
According to Kamala Rao, the president of the Canadian Media Guild, Vice held a town hall with employees on July 9 announcing the layoffs. The 23 eliminated positions include voluntary and involuntary layoffs — as per Vice Canada’s collective agreement with CMG, voluntary layoffs have to be offered to staff first before involuntary layoffs can occur.
In 2014, The Canadian Press reported that Rogers Media and Vice Canada had signed a $100 million deal to start a speciality TV channel and open a new production studio. That channel, Viceland, was announced in 2015 and premiered in 2016. However, A Bloomberg report in March 2016 found that people were viewing Viceland documentaries more online than on the TV channel itself.
In 2018, Rogers announced it was cutting ties with Vice Canada and taking Viceland off the air, resulting in 23 layoffs. “Vice will continue to grow in Canada in 2018. We have a lot of opportunity ahead of us and will be announcing some new exciting partnerships soon,” Ryan Archibald, president of Vice Canada, told The Canadian Press at the time.
This post will be updated with name of staff affected as they are confirmed. To submit a name or tip, please email J-Source’s managing editor H.G. Watson at hgwatson@j-source.ca.
YOU GUYS! Cardi B had her baby. I also got laid off from VICE today. What a roller coaster of emotions y’all!
Oh yeah, if you know of anyone looking for a Production Coordinator. HMU. mackenzie.thomson11@gmail.com
— Kenzie Thomson (@kenzthomson) July 11, 2018
Hey, so I got laid off from VICE today. It was a fantastic two-plus years and I'm really gonna miss everyone.
— Phil Witmer (@philwitmer) July 11, 2018
Editor’s note, July 11, 2018, 5:56 p.m.: This story has been updated to include confirmation of the number of jobs eliminated at Vice Canada.
H.G. Watson was J-Source's managing editor from 2015 to 2018. She is a journalist based in Toronto. You can learn more about her at hgwatson.com.