VICE Launches Global Hipster Site With New VICE.com
While the Missoni for Target line may be heading towards world domination on the fashion retail front, the Montreal-born magazine turned media giant known as VICE seems like they are on a similar path in the entertainment and news realm, thanks to the recent launch of VICE.com.
During last night’s first-ever upfront held at the New York Art Deco landmark Skylight One Hanson, VICE Founder Shane Smith spoke to a press and a VIP-filled audience about how the new VICE.com will be the latest home for the brand’s former online properties, Viceland.com and VBS.TV.
Now, you may be asking youself why VICE didn’t have this domain name before? Turns out, the domain name was already bought up by someone else in the late 90s, and featured content that was actually even more racier than the in-your-face photos and news stories VICE has become so well known for over the last decade.
Finally, just within the past year, the previous owner of the VICE.com domain seemed to had fallen on some hard times and was willing to sell the Internet address for way less than the asking price of one million dollars that the owner had previously quoted back in 1998.
With the launch of VICE.com, VICE also announced to develop stand-alone online media channels on topics such as General News, Sports, Travel, Fashion, Food and Film & Photography.
In addition to the unveiling of the new online media super-site, VICE mentioned plans of continuing to partner with media outlets on an international scale to help distribute their free original programming to as many viewers as possible. Some of these partners include big-time news and media sources like Huffington Post/AOL, The Guardian (UK), Der Spiegel (Germany), and Youku (China).
Looks like VICE is also planning to ditch their ties with MTV here in the States, as they announced they’ll be working on a new television series for HBO, set to go into production this fall. If you may recall, MTV played host to The VICE Guide To Everything television series back this past winter, which covered politics, culture, fashionpretty much everything.
In proper VICE fashion, not only did last night’s press event feature a few words given by the big-wigs and an off-beat Powerpoint presentation, but some amazing performances by Rick Ross, Death From Above 1979, Tanlines and Unknown Mortal Orchestra just to name a few. Plus, there were even DJ sets by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zinner and indie rockers Black Lips among others.
Thanks to the launch of the brand new VICE.com, looks like hipsters from all parts of the globe (Brooklyn, Beijing and beyond) will be able to get their fashion, music, politics, whateverfix straight from one, all-encompassing source.
To see highlights from last night’s event, be sure to browse the photos in the slideshow above!
