Publishing’s presumed saviors like Vice collapsed culturally by the late 2010s

Evidence

While tech breathed new life into music, traditional publishing continued its decline. Vice, which expanded from print to video to online content, fell far short of CEO Shane Smith’s ambitious prediction of a 50 billion valuation by 2020. Rupert Murdoch’s 70 million investment in 2013, valuing Vice at $1 billion, still proved too optimistic. Vice may have won over older millennials, but the next generation hated it. A 2017 survey among teens found Vice to be the second-least-cool brand, even lower than Yahoo!. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 517

Categorization

• CANDY: Vice being ‘second-least-cool brand for teens, even lower than Yahoo!’ is a fun, tweetable bit of 2010s cultural trivia.