Vice News boss: fresh approach is paying off

Speaking at the Frontline Showcase: The Changing News Landscape event in Paddington last week, the former Dispatches editor said Vice News was “still a baby”, but had made a strong start.

“We are producing good content, we are spending money and we are opening bureaux around the world,” Sutcliffe said. “We think there is an opportunity to grow a network that doesn’t necessarily take its model from traditional media. You don’t need huge buildings in central London with massive basements, housing thousands of people.”

The Vice head of news production for Europe said it was not yet clear if the channel would prove financially sustainable, but the company had a track record of making money from its entertainment channels.

Vice News, which launched in March via the youth publisher’s website and YouTube, is intended to “shine a light on underreported stories around the globe”.

It has posted a raft of reports of varying lengths from locations including the Central African Republic, Syria and Ukraine.

Sutcliffe said most of the content is made in-house or by freelancers, and the channel offers viewers a fresh approach that provides a contrast with traditional bulletins from providers such as the BBC and Al Jazeera.

“We are benefiting from having an approach that is more street-level, more relaxed and more embedded,” he added. “There is an emotional connection between our reporters and the viewers. This is what makes it feel fresh, less mediated, managed, and less part of a corporate enterprise.”

Panorama editor Tom Giles admitted he was “jealous” of the freedom online distribution gave Vice News and argued that the BBC must evolve. “We are prisoners of our form. The reason Vice feels liberating is because it doesn’t have to worry about how a film will be marketed, or how it will fit on a certain channel or in a particular time slot.”

Giles said that while traditional media is alive to the need to adapt, it remains a “supertanker” compared with its more nimble emerging rivals. “By the time we’ve got permission to go out there and get the money and a commission, Vice has done it in a completely new form. They are filling the void.”

Cardiff University professor of journalism Richard Sambrook, a former director of global news for the BBC, said that while Vice’s distribution model is new, many of its reports would fit well on terrestrial channels such as BBC3.

He added that the emerging entrant was “three minutes old” and as yet largely unproven.

“The true nature of an organisation comes through with how it handles crises, whether economic or personal – such as the recently kidnapped Vice journalist. There will be worse than that to come and it is how a business responds when it is really under that makes or breaks it,” he said.