A visionary unravels the future of media

From far, Shane Smith, co-founder and CEO of Vice Media, looks like a content bully, set to dictate media menu. From near, Smith is the muscular voice of the millennials. No wonder the upstart global digital media sensation, born in 1994, is valued at over $4.2 billion today. Edgy content gives Vice the nuclear power to zip past other media giants and become a cult Gen Y brand. The multimedia upstart has a secret: just press 'record' and set off a chain reaction.
KT: Shane, welcome to Dubai... Let's start with a broad question: Why is it so fashionable to talk about the future of media? Wasn't it evident all along that video is the best form of storytelling?
Shane: [Laughs] Yes, it is. I don't know why. I think because media is having the same quandary that, let's say, music went through 10 years ago, when they could see that it was all going to change, and they said 'let's talk about the future of music', but instead of changing and innovating and developing their own Spotify, they built up walls and tried to hold on, and watched it grow smaller and smaller and weirder and weirder.
And I think what's happening in the (ad) agency world is that they see that everything is shifting. Spots and dots are shifting. media buying has shifted to programmatic, algorithmic... and that's changing digital completely. I think everyone can see where we have to get to - which is all screens, all the time.
Yet, are we acting anything different than what the music industry did? No. We're putting up roadblocks. TV is TV. Mobile is mobile. Online is online. We're trying to hold on to the spots and dots. It's sort of like a slow suicide were everybody is fascinated about talking about where we might end up. But there will be some fast-movers. There will be some success stories.
What you're seeing in our domestic market is that companies like Amazon and Netflix are eating everybody's lunch. And now you're going to see Apple entering the fray. You're going to see Google entering the fray. This is going to upset media as we know it.
You spoke about your home market. But the Middle East is different. So how would you adapt?
Sure, all markets are different. The example that I use as to why we're rolling out so rapidly (last year, we were in 34 countries; by the end of this year we will be in 80 countries). One of the reasons why I know this will be successful has nothing to do with me or strategy or anything.
We set up a post-production facility in Greece (it's cheaper). Our partners said, 'hey, can we do some other territories, like Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria.?' We said 'sure'. So, all of a sudden, I get a call - you have to come see the Prime Minister of Serbia. Why? The 'why' is because we did a deal for mobile, online, TV in Serbia. Vice is now 25 per cent of all media in Serbia.
Why? I didn't know why either. Because of the 'super-young' population there and absolutely no millennial content. So, by default, we became No. 1 and the Prime Minister of Serbia got nervous, saying 'who are these guys that everybody's watching. I want to meet these guys'.
So, this is my long-winded way of saying what's different here versus what's the same. You know what's the same? You have a young population that's starved for content, that's media savvy and that wants to have their own voice, much like the kids in Serbia, the kids in India, America, Canada, South Africa, Australia. That's the good news, and that's what we're good at doing.
Because of the Internet, kids in Dubai, in Detroit, in Dallas, in Dakar. know the same music, fashion and culture at the same time, yet those cities are different and the people in those cities are different. So, we mix our internationalist content that we can pull from all of our countries, as well as domestic content that we make.
So, every country I've been to since we started, and we've been doing this for 22 years in many different countries - has said 'yes, I'm sure you know about this, but in this country it's different.'
 In Italy, it's different because you have to register the content with a magistrate and, by the way, if the magistrate finds a problem, he literally takes it to the Vatican - not joking! So, Italy is different.
(In) France, and I can say this now, we were a disaster for a long time. The only reason I can say we 'were' a disaster in France is because now we're the No. 1 TV network there. But we had problems. France has its own unique culture. But when we launched TV, it sort of exploded. So, every country is different and we have to be sensitive to every country's cultural sensitivities.
You have said that millennials are 'bull**** detectors'. How do you create an organisation with zero tolerance for such things?
I think we have a (distinct) culture within the company called immersionism. Basically, we go out and we press 'record'. And I think that's the key. You press 'record' and you let the story tell itself.
A lot of time people try to shoehorn a story. we don't do that. We say, 'here is an issue.' For example, if you look at millennials, the No. 1 overarching global concern is the environment. Name one environmental programme that's targeted at the millennials and has compelling content? So, you have this No.1 passion point and not a lot of great content.
So, we go out and say 'okay, let's press record.' We don't know the answers. we're not scientists. So, we go talk to the scientists, we go talk to the people who know the answers. For example, we won an Emmy for this - the Greenland piece - where we go to the glacier to see if it is melting, and we see that it is melting. Then we go to Nasa and other respected scientists to ask 'is it melting?' and they say 'yes, it is melting and this is why.'
And then we go to the deniers and say 'why are you saying that it's not melting?' And they say 'no, it's Antarctica. Arctic is melting, yes, but Antarctica is growing. it's a north-south thing.' So, we go to Antarctica. Is it melting? Yes, it is. So we go back to those guys again.
Basically, what I'm saying is that we don't shoehorn. We follow the story as it is. That is the way of not bull****ing. Because I think when you look at it before. how things worked before were that 'here is the story. shoehorn the facts into the story'. And we say that the facts aren't as important to us as the actual story and how do those facts lay out. Why is that? Because if you look at the time when we grew up and when Gen Y grew up, you had so many things, for example: the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which were based on falsehoods. So you had disenfranchisement with mainstream media.
So we came out saying we were going to be more of a domestic blog that has boots on the ground. And say 'here's the video. You decide.'
 
One of the things that bothers you is being called 'new' media. Is that right?
I'll tell you why. Because when we first started online video a long time ago, we were one of 100. And then we were one of 40 and then were one of 20 and then one of 10 and now we are one of one. And so, for me, we're the largest new media company in the world. Now, where do we go? I have to take the 'new' out of it and become the No. 1 media company in the world.
That's much more aggressive, and if I'd said that in the beginning, everyone would have said 'Oh my God, Shane really is a megalomaniac'. If we're going to do this, that's really going to be the goal. Everyone used to roll their eyes at me when I used to say 'I want to be the next ESPN, CNN and MTV rolled into one.' But what I was saying was - and I still believe this to be true - is that those are cable television success stories.
In fact, I didn't say I wanted to be all those - I said I wanted to be 10x those because with the internet, the audience is 10x and therefore the opportunity is 10x. So my longwinded answer to your question is that I don't mind being called new media. But I already won that game. And so now I have a bigger game to play and that means taking 'new' out of new media.
You say you're targeting millennials because they don't like falsehoods. Why not everyone else? Many of us are not millennials but we don't like falsehoods either.
[Laughs] We're not ageist. But, look, our news obviously skews older, our music skews younger, we are a broader spectrum and as we get bigger, we grow. We just see it as a huge white space. I'll give you one example. It's food. The No. 1 cohort that spends money on food is Gen Y. (It) goes out and spends money - not on grocery shopping. Name one Gen Y-specific food show, except for mine?
So, it's a massive, massive white space that the largest demographic in the world - as of last year - is still incredibly under-represented. It's a socio-political-economic power but is dramatically under-represented in the media. The largest demo doesn't have, let's say, food programming, travel programming, news programming. So, for us, it's a huge white space.
We are a trusted brand for that generation; so that's the generation I'm going to go for. So, if you're Gen X like me or you, or maybe baby-boomer, then you're allowed to watch too [laughs].
Where do you see Vice two-three years down the line in the region?
I see the same thing in Dubai that I saw in India. I just got back from India and, honestly, I salivate when I go to India. Why? Because India has the youngest population in the world.
Incredibly smart media-savvy population, hungry and thirsty for content; yet, let's be honest. India does two things incredibly well: cricket and Bollywood. Everything else, we think, we can get in there.
When I come to Dubai, I feel exactly the same thing. I sit here and say, look, incredibly savvy, incredibly diverse, educated, positive, forward-thinking, futurist. yet, is the level of media up at gold standard in many cases? No. And for us, that's going to be our challenge. We were the first-ever internet news organisation to move to terrestrial TV on HBO and win an Emmy.
We want to take that excellence and the strive for excellence and get a young generation here and give them a challenge and say 'let's go'. Let's go kick all these baby-boomers. [laughs].
What are the top trends that you think will impact media as we know it?
Let me tell you this - last year, Facebook and Google took 72 cents of every digital dollar in the world. This year, that's supposed to be even more - 80 cents. And then you add Snapchat to the equation, and things are already looking bleak for the rest of the folk.
So, these top guys are going to get stronger and there's going to be a lot of culling at the lower level. Now, there are still going to be success stories, with publishers who move fast and who do stuff well. There will be opportunities for those who get it right. But you need content - you need great content and you need great content delivery.
Plus, if you've got the audience - like we have - native advertising is the way to go. You'll see more and more publishers follow that route, but you'll still need great, no-bull**** content.