It has been less than two weeks since Buzzfeed announced that Buzzfeed News was shutting down, though the listicles portion of the site will continue to offer content like “Millie Bobby Brown’s Paparazzi “Disguise” Has Gone Viral, And It’s Pretty Cute Even If She Can Barely See.” Today, several outlets are reporting that Vice news is about to file for bankruptcy.

The filing could come in the coming weeks, according to three people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to discuss the potential bankruptcy on the record.

The company has been looking for a buyer, and still might find one, to avoid declaring bankruptcy. More than five companies have expressed interest in acquiring Vice, according to a person briefed on the discussions. The chances of that, however, are growing increasingly slim, said one of the people with knowledge of the potential bankruptcy.

A bankruptcy filing would be a bleak coda to the tumultuous story of Vice, a new-media interloper that sought to supplant the media establishment before persuading it to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2017, after a funding round from the private-equity firm TPG, Vice was worth $5.7 billion. But today, by most accounts, it’s worth a tiny fraction of that.

Both Fox and Disney invested heavily in Vice but those investments will be lost if the company files for bankruptcy. Back in 2015, Disney even considered buying it outright for $3 billion. As it stands now, if the bankruptcy does happen Fortress Investment Group would likely gain ownership of the company at a greatly reduced price.

I’m seeing all kinds of reactions to the news on Twitter. Some are mourning its impending loss.

Sad to see Vice on the brink of bankruptcy. Digital news organizations like Vice and Buzzfeed News did important reporting and taught us dinosaurs in the industry how to evolve. https://t.co/B7Kclx6r0D

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) May 1, 2023

Others not so much.

Not everything in the news is bad. Good riddance. https://t.co/DzANPFljOa

— Ajit Pai (@AjitPai) May 2, 2023

Some see it as further proof of the adage ‘get woke, go broke’

BuzzFeed News: Dead

Vice: Dead

Gawker: Dead

Mic: Dead

CNN: Sold for parts

Wapo, ESPN, ABC, NPR, Vox, CBS, NBC: Mass Layoffs

LESSON: Hive-mind vomiting the same fussy, pretentious lefty propaganda into the faces of your audience has an end point, that end point is bankruptcy

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 2, 2023

I’m not sure I agree with that. Vice was pretty far left but I think this mostly has to do with what I’d call structural issues in the news business. Simply put, it’s hard for anyone to make money since online ad rates have collapsed and advertisers on YouTube and on broadcast television seem to have become more hesitant about getting caught up in culture war issues (Bud Light being the latest example of how that can go wrong).

So it’s true that we’ve seen some lefty outlets fail and we’ve also seen CNN reportedly moving back toward the center and away from the anchors with big outspoken views. Don Lemon got fired after a string of controversies he’d created on his new morning show, but so too did Tucker Carlson. In Carlson’s case, he’d been under a sponsor boycott effort for years. What really seems to have sunk him was Fox’s decision that he was going to bring on more lawsuits and possibly generate more negative headlines.

So, overall, it looks a bit like money has gotten tight for everyone in the media business and, because it’s tight, companies are looking to avoid expensive controversies and negative attention that comes from being on the edge of controversy all the time. Fox News arguably figured that out too late and is now facing an $800 million judgment followed by another, potentially larger one to come. Put another way, the middle is looking like a safer business bet. So CNN may be moving a little to the center and Fox News is also moving a little to the center but big outlets on the far left that can’t make that move (or just don’t want to) are in trouble.

Of course this could all turn around next week and we could resume the general trend toward everyone moving away from the center but at this moment I think concern about the bottom line is probably forcing everyone to appeal to the broadest audience possible whether they really like doing it or not.