Vice News Launches, Promising 'Changing Of The Guard In Media'

Vice has been doing gonzo international reporting for years, but it's always fit in somewhat uncomfortably amid the skateboard videos, gross-out photos, fashion spreads and drug guides.

As of today, serious journalism officially has a home on Vice: Vice News. The new web channel launched today with reports from Myanmar, Russia, Venezuela and other global hot spots.

Interviewed on "CBS This Morning," Vice CEO Shane Smith made the scope of his ambitions clear.

"Every generation you have a changing of the guard in media," he said. "Woodward and Bernstein were the punks of their generation and now they're the old guard. By definition when you have a changing of the guard you have a different language. When you have a different language, the people who were the status quo say, 'Well, that's not news because you're not doing it the same way I'm doing it.'" 

Vice Media reportedly plans to put $50 million into its news push over the next three years and has hired 60 reporters for the effort. The company is said to be on track for revenues of $500 million this year, with a profit margin in excess of 25%.

As I've noted on Twitter, that arguably makes Vice worth more than the $1.4 billion it was valued at when 21st Century Fox bought a 5% stake less than seven months ago. And that, in turn, would mean Smith, who of Vice's three original cofounders has retained the largest individual stake, is worth more than the $400 million we estimated for him at the time, and that much closer to joining the FORBES billionaires club.