Michael Hollett
feature report about gun markets in Pakistan. A subsequent film, Heavy Metal In Baghdad, screened at TIFF and generated millions of views on VICE’s YouTube channel. Now big corporations will come up with the cash to send VICE reporters to cover stories around the world, including, most famously, a controversial trip to North Korea with cross-dressing former NBA star Dennis Rodman. The video side of the operation generates most of the company’s revenue, but Alvi’s heart is still in print journalism, though admittedly a new model. “I’m happy the magazine is still go ing and is profitable. That’s really important to us, because we are print guys; ultimately that’s where we come from. But after printing the magazine for so many years, we were ready for something new and to tell stories in a different way. You can’t interview rappers forever.” And then there was the controversial decision to sell 5 per cent of the company to Rupert Murdoch’s notorious News Corp, owner of Fox News. “We’re kind of in the centre of the conversation as far as big media goes, and everyone is either being threatened by us or wanting to partner with us.”
“Everyone is either threatened by us or wants to partner with us.” Alvi claims the News Corp deal came with no strings attached. “We made a deal that gave them zero control and zero say for a tiny stake, but we got money to do news our way.” It was pretty simple for self-taught businessman Alvi. “We wanted to expand into India, and they [News Corp] own Sky there. Going into India is a tricky thing. [News Corp is] also incredibly strong in Latin America. People define it by Fox News, but it’s a global media company. They’ve really attended to our needs but not tried to boss us around.” VICE was recently raked by Rob Ford’s favourite website, Gawker, for exploiting staff while its principals thrive. “We knew something was coming. They talked with people who worked here five or six years ago – a time when we didn’t have the resources to pay people a lot of money.” Alvi says staff now enjoy stock options and health benefits. “As Canadians, we believe people should have health care, especially our employees, and it is above and beyond what most places have. Today morale is very high around here.” The energized staffers huddled over laptops and rushing into editing suites would seem to agree. 3 michaelh@nowtoronto.com | @m_hollett
for more info on nxne and nxnei, see the nxne preview on page 43 NOW june 12-18 2014
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