Vice Media files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest in a string of digital media setbacks

NEW YORK (AP) — Vice Media is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the latest digital media company to falter after a meteoric rise. 

Vice said Monday that it has agreed to sell its assets to a consortium of lenders — Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital — in exchange for $225 million in credit. Other parties will also be able to submit bids. 

The bankruptcy filing arrives just weeks after the company announced it would cancel its flagship “Vice News Tonight” program amid a wave of layoffs — which was expected to impact more than 100 employees in the company’s 1,500-person workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company also said it would end its Vice World News brand, making Vice News its only brand worldwide. 

Monday's filing comes amid a wave of media layoffs and closures — including job cuts at Gannett, NPR, the Washington Post and more over recent months. In April, BuzzFeed Inc. announced that its Pulitzer Prize-winning digital media outlet BuzzFeed News was being shut down as part of a cost-cutting drive by its corporate parent.