All’s not well in India’s Viceland

A month before the launch, the partnership between the Times Group and Vice Media is strained. How long before it breaks?

Vice Media, which had announced its entry into India in June 2016 with the Times Group, has severely delayed the launch of its TV channel and website

There is disarray a month before the website's launch with the departure of editor-in-chief Pragya Tiwari. Meanwhile, employees are on three-month contracts

The TV channel's launch has been pushed to the end of the year with complications with the ministry of information and broadcasting

Could Vice be a repeat of what happened to the partnerships with HuffPost and Business Insider?

Update: The Ken has learnt that two of Vice India’s senior editorial staff—news editor Kunal Majumder and managing editor Rishi Majumder—have resigned from their respective roles over alleged management interference in the editorial process. The resignation, according to sources, happened sometime between 10 and 12 March. In an email to his now former colleagues, reviewed by The Ken, Kunal Majumder wrote, “I find it disturbing that an editorial conversation that should ideally take place between an editor and the writer is now taking place between the management and the writer, and that too marked to non-editorial staff.” Majumder neither confirms nor denies writing the email.

AUTHOR

Shashidhar KJ

Shashidhar has been a journalist for over six years and has worked with The Times of India, The Financial Express and MediaNama, his last assignment. He is a fine bloke, and by that, I mean unusually quiet. Over the years, Shashidhar has written on several subjects. Banking, startups and technology, media, and also financial technology. He started his career on the desk at the old lady of Boribunder. At The Ken, Shashidhar works out of Mumbai and writes on telecom and financial technology. What he really wants to talk about though is his vinyl collection.

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AUTHOR

Venkat Ananth

Venkat is currently in his tenth year in journalism. Prior to The Ken, he was Deputy Content Editor at Mint as part of the newspaper’s digital team. He also wrote in-depth features on the business of sport for the newspaper. His earlier assignments include Yahoo! (as a columnist) and the Hindustan Times, where he began his career. Born in Mumbai, Venkat holds a Bachelor of Mass Media (Journalism) degree from SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently resides in New Delhi, where he moved nearly five years ago.

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