Investors: Subsidising Losses and Cutbacks

investors: The sites, which boomed thanks to investors hoping they were betting on the future of the media, are having to make substantial cutbacks in a drive for profitability as financial backers grow tired of subsidising losses after investing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to The Guardian. Many of the companies have struggled to make news pay and are focusing on other forms of revenue, such as making television shows, selling goods, or producing branded content for companies. Almost every major online news start-up that emerged out of the Facebook-fuelled online publishing boom of the mid-2010s has announced substantial redundancies in the last month, with hundreds of staff sacked at Huff Post, Buzz Feed, and now Vice. Others are erecting paywalls or asking for contributions from readers in a bid to stay afloat and continue to subsidise their loss-making news businesses. Under his leadership, the company branched out from its traditional website into branded verticals and TV productions, such as the US nightly news show it produces for HBO. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shane Smith, the co-founder of Vice. Vice expanded rapidly under former chief executive Shane Smith, who once bragged about spending 380,000 on a Las Vegas dinner for the company's board of directors. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.