Vice buys ID Magazine to expand fashion footprint

Vice Media is to launch an online fashion video channel following the acquisition of bi-monthly style title I-D Magazine as the media business looks to expand its existing fashion coverage.

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Global media business plans to create the “world’s leading” online video-driven fashion channel after acquiring the British style publication.

The deal will merge Vice’s video driven youth-focused platforms with I-Ds 32-year-old high-end fashion brand to tap into the online fashion market with original programming.

The channel will expand on the publisher’s existing fashion coverage and the company says it will “explore everything from high-end couture to the myriad of underground fashion scenes all over the world.”

Vice, which began life as a magazine before expanding into books, film, advertising and online video, promises an “imminent, aggressive” content push to support the channel as it looks to fuel its digital ambitions. It currently has five digital channels – including music channel Noisey and science channel Motherboard.com – with plans to have 16 by the end of 2014.

The company’s president Andrew Creighton says: “Our readers were fashionable, but we weren’t a fashion magazine per se. There’s a huge opportunity there to create a huge and robust platform for fashion and creativity. Viceis so excited to work with the guys ati-Dmagazine, one of the only fashion publications in the world we actually respect. We know digital, i-D knows style, and together we’re going to give the world the gift of eye-catching, mind-blowing video-driven fashion content.”

Terry Jones and his wife Tricia, who founded i-D in 1980, will remain partners and shareholders as the two publications’ editorial and sales staff join forces. Vice also plans to keep the staff currently employed at I-D and increase the magazine’s print circulation.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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