First There Was Vibe, Now There's Vice
Vibe was the hip, urban music magazine of the 90s, and MTV virtually owned the television youth culture a decade ago. Today we have Vice Magazine, a Brooklyn-based project that writes about the underground music scene, extreme sports, and all things counterculture.
There television counterpart is VBS.tv-Rescuing You From TV's Deathlike Grip.
Late last year, the Viacom-owned MTV Networks Music and Logo Group made a deal to start VBS, with financing from MTV and content from Vice.
According to The New York Times, "In return for its investment — which is not mentioned on the VBS site — MTV gets a low-cost laboratory in which to experiment with Internet video programming as it struggles to adjust to a world where online content is chipping away at television’s dominance....
"They gave me a pitch of '60 Minutes'-meets-'Jackass,'" said Jeff Yapp, the executive vice president for program enterprises for the MTV Networks music group.
Who knew that the likes of Foreign Policy could turn me on to a documentary mashup about North Korea with a decided subversive edge?
