The collapse of Vice and BuzzFeed marks the end of the digital media revolution

(CNN) — The digital media revolution is over.

Its two leaders, Vice Media and BuzzFeed, are in frantic retreat, surrendering most of their online empires while trying to protect what remains of their core assets. Once threatening to disrupt an entire industry and usher in a new era in news distribution and monetization, the former darlings of digital media are now trying to survive somehow.

As they retreat, their huge newsrooms, once packed with rows of reporters, now turn off the lights and lock their doors. BuzzFeed, already smaller after several waves of layoffs, announced this week that it will cut 16% of its staff as it undergoes a “planned strategic restructuring” to cut costs. And Vice Media said Thursday it will lay off hundreds of employees as it stops publishing on its website and becomes a studio-like business.

“It’s devastating that a group of journalists who have had such a significant impact on the world are ending their jobs in this way,” a senior Vice media executive told me of the horrific situation.

All digital publishers have struggled in recent years as they face industry headwinds caused by a weak advertising market now dominated by Big Tech titans and declining referral traffic. . Not to mention the emerging threat of Artificial Intelligence, which is also posed by the Big Tech giants.

Vice Media and BuzzFeed have both been industry-wide icons, two of the highest-profile pioneers who have paved the (smaller) way for other digital-first startups. At one point, both outlets struck fear into their traditional newspaper and media competitors, each valued at billions of dollars, while making splashy appointments and threatening further disruption.

Now, they are struggling to survive.

The end of Vice Media as we know it is especially hard to swallow. The outlet’s employees, who I’m told will receive severance pay if they fall under the cuts, learned several hours before CEO Bruce Dixon delivered his memo that something was wrong. Before the announcement, the mood inside Vice Media was somber.

As rumors spread about the fate of the media, staff have struggled to keep working, with one employee telling me it was “like watching violinists play on the sinking Titanic.”

Then, around 3 p.m. ET, the NYT’s Benjamin Mullin confirmed his worst fears and reported that mass layoffs were coming. Ultimately, at approximately 5 p.m. ET, Dixon officially informed his workforce of the difficult decision and the drastic changes the company will be implementing under its new private equity owners led by Fortress Investment Group.

Dixon said in his note that Vice Media had determined that it was “no longer profitable” for the company to distribute its digital content on its own. Instead, he said, “We would like to partner with established media companies to distribute our digital content, including news, across their global platforms as we transition fully to a studio model.” It is not known who these partners could be.

The company also has to determine what to do with Refinery29 and Motherboard. Dixon said Vice Media is in “advanced negotiations” to sell the former. And I’m told there are a lot of discussions going on about what to do with the motherboards, and one possibility is to license the technology-focused vertical to another company that would operate it, like the Sports Illustrated model.

Based on what I gathered Thursday, officials aren’t sure whether much of the content the site has published over the years will remain online.

Meanwhile, hundreds of workers left wondering what their fate would have to endure over the weekend to find out if they had lost their jobs. At least it can be said that this is a cruel measure. In any case, digital publishing workers have largely accepted their fate.

“I think most of us have seen the writing on the wall: There aren’t enough lifeboats, and the structure of those of us making digital news is very likely to remain on board,” said one staffer who compared it to Vice Media. Not there.” With the sinking of the Titanic.

In the wake of massive layoffs, it’s hard to imagine that the brand will remain the same. They never are. The Internet is full of zombie publications, which have familiar names but do not have the soul they once had, which used to be alive, they have turned into mere shells.

Surprisingly, when Vice Media staff received the devastating news on Thursday, co-founder Shane Smith, whose reputation as a savvy marketer has earned him more than $100 million from the outlet, was nowhere to be found.