Shane Smith, Founder and CEO, VICE

Since cofounding VICE as a punk magazine in 1994, Shane Smith has grown the brand to become the world’s leading youth media company, with an international network of digital channels, a television production studio, a record label, an in-house creative services agency, a book-publishing house and a feature film division. On December 2, the CEO of VICE Media visited the Paley Center for an intimate luncheon conversation with members of the Paley Media Council.

Shane Smith, Founder and CEO, VICE
Shane Smith is the founder and CEO of VICE, the global youth media brand. One of the industry’s most respected visionaries, Smith is also a critically acclaimed journalist, and the host and executive producer for the Emmy winning news series, VICE, on HBO. Under Smith’s guidance, VICE, initially launched in 1994 as a punk magazine, has expanded and diversified to become the world’s leading youth media company; operating an international network of digital channels, a television production studio, a record label, an in-house creative services agency, a book-publishing house and a feature film division. VICE's award-winning video content covers news, culture, music, technology, sports and fashion from a unique perspective tailored towards a young international audience often ignored by mainstream media. To syndicate VICE’s content globally, Smith established a network of content distribution partnerships with leading platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, HBO, and others. VICE’s online presence has since exploded, with its network of channels reaching hundreds of millions of viewers a month. Smith has reported from the world's most isolated and difficult places, including North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Liberia and Greenland. VICE has won scores of awards for its groundbreaking reporting, including an Emmy Award for Best Information Series or Special, the Environmental Media Award, Television Academy Honors for socially conscious programming, and more. Smith graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, with a BA in English Literature and Political Science. He enjoys cold white wine and long, bubbly baths—preferably in tandem.

Jeff Jarvis (Moderator)
Jeff Jarvis is the author of Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live (Simon & Schuster, 2011), What Would Google Do? (HarperCollins 2009), and the Kindle Single Gutenberg the Geek. He blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com and cohosts the podcast This Week in Google. He is professor and director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. He advises media companies, startups, and foundations and is a public speaker. Until 2005, he was president and creative director of Advance.net, the online arm of Advance Publications. Prior to that, Jarvis was creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly; Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News; TV critic for TV Guide and People; a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner; and assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

This event is exclusive to Media Council members and other invited guests. To find out if you're eligible to join the Media Council, contact mediacouncil@paleycenter.org.

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