Vice News Chief Defends Her Pay

Vice Union asks where did $1.6 billion in funding go?

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Vice’s news chief Subrata De hosted the global morning call yesterday and had to face the wrath of staff over a series of bonus payments given to Vice chiefs weeks before the youth media giant filed for bankruptcy.

While De told staff they were “entitled to their anger,” and that the timing wasn’t great, she defended her $780,000 annual compensation and a big bonus payment saying that her pay was commensurate with her experience. 

Present and former staff however were stunned to learn that their boss had been awarded a $200,000 pay-out on April 28, court documents revealed. That was a day after the WSJ reported that “Vice News Tonight,” was being axed and a hundred staff were being laid-off. 

Vice’s head of communications declined to comment and messages to De were not returned. 

Vice’s news team has won a slew of Emmys and other awards over the years for its global coverage of war zones and domestic issues such as gun violence and De’s division is a profit-making hub at Vice Media. Reporters however are finding it increasingly difficult to perform their roles under extreme financial pressures.

Partners are concerned about what kind of product they’re receiving. Paramount Global, which owns Showtime, is currently involved in a contract dispute with the company. Showtime airs the hard hitting news series, “Vice” and according to a bankruptcy filing this week, it is arguing it didn’t contract with Vice’s current debtor in possession, Fortress Investments for shows. The contract is for as many as eight seasons. “Vice” is in season four.

The Vice Union took to Twitter on Tuesday accusing Vice of “rampant mismanagement,” and “corporate greed.” In a statement, the union shared that $1.6 billion in funding “disappeared in less than a decade.” 

“Vice was not paying bills. It had cash flow problems and bridge loans and it was going to pay bonuses?” said one stunned Vice insider, adding: “Who is making the decision to pay people? There are creditors, there are legit businesses who work with Vice and are left holding the bag.” 

One freelancer Katie Way tweeted, “Vice owes me $2,200 in freelance fees and every two weeks the exec who tanked Vice.com receives a paycheck that is more than my annual rent.” She continued in a blog writing about the hardship journalists at the company had faced in pursuit of news gathering, “Our video teams had to scramble to rent gear because overdue bills made the company name all but worthless at most of the equipment rental facilities we used in Brooklyn.”  

Calls to return the bonuses

Some are even demanding that Vice bosses return the cash or at least contribute to a Gofundme for staff who lost their jobs. “They should absolutely pay those back,” said one Vice former staffer. “And they should actually pay the people that are owed severance, their full severance.” 

Another former staffer asked, “Has anybody heard from the WGAE union about clawbacks or anything?” 

Meanwhile there’s further indignation that the company’s chief people officer Daisy Augur-Dominguez received a $99,000 bonus, while admonishing staff trying to get their expenses back for not being polite. Augur-Dominguez was paid $749,000 in annual compensation, according to the court documents. 

One former member of staff shared that many employees took pay cuts during the pandemic and are stunned at the salaries Vice is paying its top management.  

Here’s what top managers were awarded. Some are described as retention bonuses while others are simply bonuses.  

EVP, global head of news, Subrata De: $200,000.

Head of global TV, Morgan Hertzan: $150,000.

Co-CEO, Hozefa Lokhandwala: $133,000.

Chief marketing officer, Nadja White: $128,000.

Chief creative officer and co-president of ad agency Virtue, Chris Garbutt: $125,000.

Co-CEO Bruce Dixon: $112,000.

Chief people officer, Daisy Augur-Dominguez: $99,000.

Vice co-founder Suroosh Alvi: $53,000. 

The chief communications officer Jonathan Bing: $53,000.

Chief operating officer of news and entertainment, Cory Haik: $45,000.

Global EVP of commercial and sales strategy, Geoff Schiller: $27,500. (Schiller then quit to join Vox as chief revenue officer in June.)

The former chief operating officer, Hosi Simon, who left his role in March 2022 to join a space travel company received $328,000 in severance payments through December.

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