Investigative journalism
Viewers of Sky TG 24 will have noticed the writing "Vice News" at the bottom left of the screen. It was, in fact, one Vice Media investigation team – an editorial group based in Brooklyn active on the web and on traditional media (also present in Milan) – to go inside the new Islamic state to make a live shock service. There aren't many newspapers now that can afford such an initiative. Deputy can. It can because it can afford it and it can, because it's the type of information it intends to offer to its audience, young and digitally native.
This project is supported by financial stability which is derived a) from investor confidence who put money into Vice Media without being asked too much and, b) from his own economic model based on the only resource that seems capable of saving professional journalism, the native advertising, i.e. advertising incorporated into the content. Here we are at another one paradox typical of net: right there most abhorred practice from official journalism is that works more on the net: native advertising until a few months ago was anathema ed heresy for directors, the newsrooms of newspapers that count as long as their properties brutally demanded it. Since then we have started to see it in the big magazines, even if it is offered with a perceptible disturbance. Excusatio non petita why do you consumers of information native advertising not from for nothing nuisance just like product placement in cinema does not. This new technique is less annoying than invasive billboard advertising. Readers are not stupid, they know how to recognize the origin of a content.
The financial stability that newspapers lack
In just five years i newspapers have lost il 30 % their revenues in Europe and in USA a less devastating 10 %; all the big ones media conglomerates have unbundled la printed paper how to get rid of a monstrous vision. A very sad affair. It's just the crollo of the revenues , perdita of financial stability which is destroying the moral , cohesion policy with newsrooms. The example of the "Washington Post” is paradigmatic. The “Post” was literally going in pieces, when Jeff Bezos, the deep-pocketed new boss, did it arrivare money e human resources which have spread a sense of financial stability e returned confidence to the HN Editors and management which has been renovated on all levels. Now the ancient and glorious newspaper is returning to its former glory thanks to the revival of the type of journalism that brought it into history textbooks. The Post is back the Post. Now whoever says they work on it is not seen as a walking dead man, but he is invited to sit down because there is something that might interest the newspaper.
The events of Vice and also of the Post show us two ways to save the newspapers: find a Jeff Bezos on duty, or embrace without delay a new business model of which native advertising, fully integrated into the editorial staff's activity, is a pillar. This is what Vice News has effectively already done: it's free (as 85% of readers want the news), it is truly a platform multimedia e cross-medial (the classic distinction between written words and videos no longer exists), yes finances in brave and intelligent way with native adv and sponsorships. But this would not have been enough if the return of appetite of the financial community for information.
The young audience, the keystone
In the current critical scenario for the financial markets, to ride the wave crest are the companies of the media sector. Groups like Vice Media, BuzzFeed e Monocle are attracting billions of dollars in investments, thanks to their agility in keeping up with the times from the point of view of communication, but above all for having been able to arouse theinterest of young people around the world.
The favor of young audience is undoubtedly one of strengths of Vice Media, whose value has recently reached i 2.5 billion dollars, crowning the rapid rise of the former Canadian newspaper with nine zeros. In addition to promoting the influx of ben 500 million of investments from Technology Crossover Ventures and A&E Networks, the endorsement of the young people was a positive point for the collaboration with the US broadcaster HBO. Also driving the deal was Vice's talent for profiting from the web, a goal that many other companies are still struggling to achieve.
The funding comes from commercial partners, who collaborate with the company to develop projects of various kinds, or from major brands, whose success now mainly depends on promotion on the web, thanks also to the direct contact with young people.
The core business moved to the web
La net is undoubtedly Vice's main source of income, so much so that the80 % of revenue of society. Before becoming the media giant we know today, Vice was a Montreal-based magazine, promoting cultural events and tackling topics such as drugs and underground music. From the beginning he was noted for his foul language, for his provocative content and above all for his constant fidelity to the motto “doing stupid things intelligently and intelligent things stupidly”, which means that more serious topics are play down, while the more ridiculous ones are subjected to an almost scientific analysis.
It was around 2000 that the Vice group has decided to extend its field of action to the web, relying almost exclusively on advertising revenues e focusing especially on video. In fact, the production of videos currently represents a very important challenge for society, which sees in it the future of information, aspiring to become a kind of CNN of the web.
Having said that, the success of Vice does not depend only on the fact of "knowing how to sell" advertising. The merit of him is above all that of having created an alternative form of information, whose irreverence obliges the public a to focus doubly up news or themes that would otherwise be difficult to understand in their many aspects.
