The New Old Media: Why Publishers Like Vice Want to Be Studios Now

Hook: You wanted fast context, not another think piece

Tired of scrolling three reporters deep to understand why your favorite news site is suddenly making TV shows? Welcome. If your pain point is: "How do publishers survive when ads and subscriptions stop paying the bills?" — here’s the short answer: they are trying to studios. And Vice’s new C‑suite hires plus Netflix’s recent acquisition maneuvers make that pivot obvious, awkward, and inevitable.

The elevator pitch: publishers to studios, and back again

The last three years have shown us a repeating loop: publishers chase scalable digital distribution → advertising revenue slides or becomes unpredictable → publishers hunt new, higher‑margin models → many land on production and IP ownership. That’s the trajectory Vice Media is on right now. The company’s signings of Joe Friedman as CFO and Devak Shah as EVP of strategy (under CEO Adam Stotsky) are not cosmetic: they’re the hires you make when you mean to buy rights, package talent, raise slate financing, and talk to streamers like a peer rather than a vendor (Hollywood Reporter, Jan 2026).

Why Vice’s hires matter: decode the chess moves

There’s a genre of corporate hire that reads like a roadmap. Hiring a former agency finance chief signals a focus on talent packaging, back‑end economics, and complex deal structures. Hiring a former NBCUniversal biz‑dev veteran signals a focus on distribution windows, partnerships, and the kind of relationship that gets your show on a streamer’s priority list.

"If you're trying to be a studio, you don't just need reporters and editors; you need people who can build slates, finance production, and negotiate complex rights." — paraphrase, industry context

That paraphrase is literally what Vice is doing. The post‑bankruptcy reboot is turning a publication that once did branded production-for-hire into a company that wants to own and exploit IP across formats. That requires a different org chart, different KPIs, and a different risk appetite.

Context: Netflix, WBD and the new buyer landscape

Meanwhile, Netflix’s aggressive moves on the acquisition front — including the proposed deal for Warner Bros. Discovery and public commentary about theater windows — change the math for independent producers and publisher‑studios. If the Netflix‑WBD deal goes through, Netflix has told the press it plans to preserve a form of theatrical release for certain titles (Ted Sarandos suggested a 45‑day window in a January 2026 interview with The New York Times). That both soothes theatrical stakeholders and signals that streaming platforms intend to maintain premium release economics for certain high‑value IP (NYT, Jan 2026; Reuters coverage of the bidding landscape, Jan 2026).

Why does that matter to a publisher trying to be a studio? Because consolidated buyers — whether Netflix, Amazon, or a vertically integrated media conglomerate — mean bigger checks but also higher expectations. They want proven IP, predictable performance, and ownership clarity. Publishers that can package an audience into intellectual property and offer a polished development pipeline become attractive suppliers or acquisition targets.

What the pivot actually looks like on the ground

“Becoming a studio” is shorthand, and shorthand hides messy operational changes. Here’s what a publisher’s transition to a studio model usually requires:

• Rights audits: identify which stories, series, and creator relationships are freely licensable versus encumbered by third‑party agreements.
• Talent and packaging expertise: agents and packaging execs who can attach showrunners, directors, and talent with market credibility.
• Production finance: capability to structure slate financing, tax credit optimization, and bridge loans because production cash flow rarely matches editorial cash flow.
• Legal & business affairs: to negotiate IP splits, distribution windows, and backend points — contracts matter more than headlines here.
• Distribution relationships: first‑look deals and sales channels to streamers, broadcasters, and international buyers.
• Data & audience insights: the newsroom’s audience metrics become the development department’s proof points.

Case study: What Vice needs to prove

Vice has a global brand and an archive of reporter‑led storytelling; that’s a content advantage. What it must now prove is that it can turn those stories into bankable IP: recurring series, film properties, and formats that justify a production budget rather than a branded content invoice. The Friedman and Shah hires show Vice is buying the operational skill set to close such deals.

Economics: why publishers are chasing studio margins

Publishing margins have compressed for several reasons: programmatic ad price volatility, walled‑garden ad spend consolidation, and subscription fatigue among consumers. Production and IP ownership offer longer tail monetization: repeat licensing, format sales, theatrical revenue, merch, and international windows. But higher return potential comes with higher variance. A hit show can offset many failures; many middling titles cannot.

Publishers historically treated production as an ancillary line — branded video, short documentaries, sponsor content. The studio pivot flips that: production becomes the primary growth lever. To do that without burning cash, publishers need smarter finance and a realistic risk tolerance. That’s the thinking behind hiring finance veterans who know slates and packaging.

Media consolidation accelerates the pivot

Consolidation (streamers buying content companies, conglomerates swallowing studios) is both cause and effect. Bigger acquirers want control of IP, distribution, and data. Publishers that can aggregate reliable audiences and turn them into sellable IP become logical acquisition targets.

Netflix’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery crystallizes this: if major streamers keep buying up scale and distribution, publisher‑studios that can create premium content and operate with production rigor will either be absorbed or will sell first‑look deals at favorable terms.

Practical, actionable advice for publishers that want to pivot (or avoid disaster)

If you’re running a media brand and you’re considering the studio pivot — or if you’re a creator evaluating offers — here’s a compact playbook pulled from industry practice and recent hires like Vice’s.

1. Start with an IP audit: catalog every story, podcast, listicle, and investigative series that could scale into serialized formats. Label each asset: "rights clear," "needs talent attachments," or "not feasible." Without this, slates are guesswork.
2. Hire a compact finance squad: CFOs who know entertainment finance think in slates, tax credits, and deferred compensation. If you can’t hire, consult with specialists who have closed slate deals before (Vice’s Joe Friedman is an example of this move).
3. Secure a first‑look or output relationship: even a small first‑look reduces distribution friction. It’s better than ad hoc licensing and gives you a runway to prove your production chops.
4. Pilot, don’t overcommit: greenlight two or three low‑to‑mid budget pilots that test format and monetization — one documentary-series, one scripted adaptation, one short‑form format that scales internationally.
5. Use existing audiences as proof points: show viewership retention, social engagement, and demography to buyers. Editorial metrics translate to development evidence if you map them correctly.
6. Build a legal/royalty playbook: standardize backend points and profit waterfalls for talent. Complexity kills deals and inflates costs.
7. Mix service work and IP ownership: while building IP, do fee‑for‑service production to keep factories humming and crews employed — but cap service work so it doesn’t swallow your creative pipeline.
8. Measure the right KPIs: production cost per finished hour, revenue per hour (incl. licensing, SVOD, AVOD, TVOD, theatrical), and net present value of each property across windows.

Risks you cannot pretend aren’t real

Pivoting to a studio model is sexy in board decks and ugly in cash flow. Key risks:

• Cash intensity: production requires capital and timing mismatches between spend and receipts can strain operations.
• Talent competition: established studios and streamers outbid publishers for top showrunners and directors.
• Labor dynamics: residuals, union rules, and strike risk (we saw the 2023 labor actions reshape negotiations) raise unpredictability.
• Regulatory scrutiny: large M&A deals may face antitrust review, which can change the buyer landscape quickly. See recent policy lab coverage for how regulators think about digital consolidation.
• Creative risk: a publisher’s editorial voice doesn’t automatically translate to successful scripted or long-form content.

The cycle of reinvention (a dry view)

Here’s the thing: media companies are in a perpetual state of rediscovery. Newspapers tried classifieds, classifieds mutated into marketplaces, marketplaces birthed subscriptions, subscriptions flirted with membership models, and now publishers chase the studio model. Each reinvention is less about ideology and more about chasing the margin that isn’t collapsing under algorithmic pressure.

That cycle is as reliable as taxes. But the most durable companies are those that learn two lessons from each run: keep one foot in editorial credibility (where trust lives) and one foot in financial rigor (where deals live). Vice’s pivot shows the choreography: keep the brand voice, trade the operating model.

Predictions for 2026 and beyond

Based on the current landscape (late 2025 and early 2026 developments), here’s what to expect:

• More publisher‑run boutique studios: expect a wave of mid‑market publisher studios that specialize in writer‑led, audience‑niche series rather than tentpole films.
• Consolidation among buyers: if Netflix completes big acquisitions, it will tilt bargaining power toward large platforms — but also create white‑space for nimble independents and publisher studios.
• Theatrical windows normalize: 30–60 day windows will become a common compromise between theaters and streamers; publishers should plan hybrid release strategies for premium properties (Sarandos publicly pitched 45 days as a compromise, NYT, Jan 2026).
• AI augments pre‑production and localization: expect AI to reduce pre‑production costs, accelerate script breakdowns, and seed international versions — but human creativity will still determine hits.
• Regulatory watch: bigger M&A deals will face scrutiny, so publisher studios may find better valuations as independent sellers before consolidation ripples again.

Checklist for the next 12 months (practical milestones)

If you run a publisher and want to test the studio waters within a year, here are tactical milestones to hit:

• Month 0–3: Complete an IP rights audit and hire/assign a finance lead with entertainment experience.
• Month 3–6: Produce two pilots (one documentary, one scripted or format) and secure a small first‑look or distribution meeting.
• Month 6–9: Lock in slate financing for at least three projects and standardize your legal templates.
• Month 9–12: Measure unit economics, refine the profit waterfall, and present a one‑year plan to the board with break‑even timelines.

Final assessment: is the studio pivot the future or a detour?

It’s both. For some publishers it will be the lucrative next chapter: owning IP, building recurring revenue, and selling to big streamers or theaters. For others it will be an expensive detour that drains editorial resources and ends in another reinvention. The outcome hinges on discipline: the sharpest publishers will borrow studio tools (finance, rights management, talent packaging) without abandoning the core brand that attracted audiences in the first place.

Call to action

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