VICE Romania’s editorial office is closing, according to its managing director Costin Velicu amid financial problems with parent group, Vice Media Group which is in major financial trouble after The Guardian revealed that it received large sums of money from the authoritarian Saudi regime and in return began censoring articles about autocracies in the Persian Gulf area.
The media group has been downsizing over the past year, closing its editorial office in France in the Spring followed by Greece and Romania.
“Unfortunately, VICE Romania is closing. The reasons for closing the editorial office in Romania are objective, they did not depend on us or on our results. What depended on us was everything that happened over the years, from the end of 2010, when VICE appeared in Romania,” managing director Costin Velicu said.
“Professionally, the nine years of VICE Romania have given the public a professional quality media. Personally, connecting with such a large global group has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful people. I learned from my colleagues in the office all the time. From civic, environmental, health articles to articles about music, culture and sex education, VICE has had a voice and is appreciated by readers.”
As of October 2023, the Vice News YouTube page had 8.7 million subscribers and over 3 billion views in total.
It promotes itself on its coverage of “under-reported stories” and targets the youth. Vice News was created in December 2013 and is based in New York City, though it has bureaus worldwide.
Before Vice News was founded, Vice published news documentaries and news reports from around the world through its YouTube channel alongside other programs. It had reported on events such as crime in Venezuela, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, protest in Turkey, the regimes in North Korea and Iran though own YouTube channel and website.
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