Cult youth publisher Vice is bringing its offer to Australia.
Vice Media is also expanding Vice News to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Mexico.
The newsrooms will be opening local operations within six months, however there is currently no set date for an Australian launch, which will see Australian specific news content available for the first time.
It is understood that while there are no set numbers regarding hires for the news team, Vice is currently looking for approximately 20 people to come on board to its already 40 strong team based in Melbourne.
Since launching its news offering in March this year, Vice News has become the fastest-growing news channel in YouTube’s history to date, amassing nearly 150 million video views and over 1 million subscribers in just seven months.
When Vice News was initially launched Michael Slonim, Vice Australia managing director, hinted that the media company would want to have a news offering in Australia.
Earlier this year Slonim told sister publication AdNews that the potential audience in Australia is huge and it would be up staffing its news team in the local market to cover both news events at home and overseas.
“[Vice News] is no bullshit, it's honest, immersive and first person. It's young correspondents in front of the cameras talking. There's an appetite for it. It's the future of news when it comes to young people. [They] do care about news but not in the way its made right now,” he said.
“We target 18 to 34 year olds and there's a couple of million [in Australia]. They are smart and curious and want to know what's going on out there. They are deeply concerned about the shit that's going out there whether it's on our shores or further afield. There are big audiences who are engaged with this stuff and with politics and there's a big gap for this content,” he said.
Each of the seven new territories will offer local language editions featuring in-depth video and editorial content, including international reporting, recurring franchises, short-form and feature-length documentaries, Vine and Instagram, and live-streaming.
This story first appeared on sister site adnews.com.au.