Vice is abandoning Vice.com and laying off hundreds

After nearly three decades, Vice will stop publishing stories to its website. Vice Media CEO Bruce Dixon said today that the company is going to lay off hundreds of employees as it plans a shift toward social platforms, according to a memo to employees obtained by Washington Post reporter Will Sommer.

“It is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously,” Dixon writes. “Moving forward we will look to partner with established media companies to distribute our digital content, including news, on their global platforms, as we fully transition to a studio model.”

Vice has been struggling with many of the same challenges affecting other companies across the media industry. Advertising has become a less lucrative way to monetize content, and audiences are becoming more difficult to reach directly. That’s why Vice is moving toward new revenue streams, such as licensing out its content and focusing on social platforms with bigger scale.

Earlier on Thursday, Vice writers began backing up their content after an anonymous tip suggested the site would be shutting down. It’s still not clear whether Vice will shutter its website altogether — as we’ve seen with The Messenger — or if the website will remain online but inactive. The Verge reached out to Vice for more information but did not receive a response before publication.

Dixon says the layoffs will affect “several hundred” employees. He adds that Refinery 29, which is also owned by Vice Media, will “continue to operate as a standalone diversified digital publishing business” even as the company looks to sell the site.