Vice Media Group Is Finally Holding Itself Accountable to DEI

Vice Media Group (VMG) is ready to be accountable. The company is being more vocal about how it's improving diversity and equity in its hiring processes, management and content. VMG released its second annual diversity, equity and inclusion report in February. In the U.S., VMG is 58.01% white and 55.74% women overall. On the executive level, VMG is 66.67% white and 44.44% women. Chief people officer Daisy Auger-Domínguez said the report is important because “it creates a sense of responsibility. It creates a sense of accountability that is really critical in this work. Someone has to model it.” You can't deliver anti-racism training if people haven't recognized that they're racist.Chief people officer Daisy Auger-Domínguez The media and marketing industry is going through its own reckoning when it comes to improving diversity internally and beyond company walls. Brands and publishers, including Vice, have been forced to look inwards and scrutinize their actions. This has led to a range of companies, including the New York Times, Vox and Hearst, releasing DEI reports in recent years. To make them more than lip service, the next step is to make DEI efforts truly trackable and accountable. Moments of anguish and truth VMG managers and executives have undergone extensive training on topics like inclusive management, unconscious bias and anti-racism. This year, training was mandatory for the first time. While reviewing the DEI report, Auger-Domínguez realized training is essential because “the core piece of this work is ensuring that managers and leaders recognize that this is their responsibility.” It is a struggle, she said, because “you can't deliver anti-racism training if people haven't recognized that they're racist.” Employees have complained to Auger-Domínguez about their experience with DEI, she said. Last summer, ceo Nancy Dubuc and Auger-Domínguez embarked on a listening tour of Vice offices. “It was painful,” Auger-Domínguez said of the tour. “There were moments of anguish and there were moments of real truth.” Supporting Black businesses post-Covid During the summer, four junior employees came to Auger-Domínguez with an idea to support Black businesses. The resulting product, called Black+, launched in March in partnership with the National Urban League. After an open application process, VMG will select 12 Black-owned businesses to receive pro bono marketing, creative services, mentorship and business consultation through 2021. “Other companies [have said] we’re going to invest a hundred million dollars. We don’t have a hundred million dollars to throw out there, but we want something that feels actionable,” said Auger-Domínguez. “It’s actionable. It’s operational.” “The impact from Covid-19 on the African-American community, particularly small business owners, has been significant,” global chief marketing officer Nadja Bellan-White told Adweek, adding that it is important to “structure a program that will provide a level of sustainable support.” Accountable through content VMG is also taking steps to produce even more diverse content. For example, take Empires of the Dirt, a docuseries on the dark side of European colonialism—each episode generated up to 500,000 views on YouTube. Refinery29’s Unbothered, which targets Black millennial women, is one of the brand’s most successful channels, with an 89% increase in followers year-over-year and a 175% increase in revenue year-over-year, although the publisher didn't specify details. In the U.K., VMG-owned Pulse Films partnered with Channel 4 to produce a film about Afro-textured hair shapes in modern Britain. The U.K. broadcaster is vocal about its commitments to anti-racism and fair representation and recently created a million-pound advertising fund for diverse ad campaigns. Measuring diversity-based efforts has always been tricky. To keep itself accountable, the company has an internal dashboard that lists all ongoing DEI projects, their status, expected timelines and successes. It is accessible to all staff and assigns responsibilities to different employees. VMG also is developing a separate dashboard just for managers that includes diversity information like hires, attrition, promotion and active employees by job level. The goal for VMG is to reduce gaps across the employee lifecycle when it comes to recruiting, onboarding, developing and retaining talent. VMG has not set diversity representation percentage goals, because the company is still learning what DEI looks like across its offices, the publisher told Adweek. There's always more that needs to be done The media and marketing industry is grappling with how it can make positive change. All advertising companies in the U.K. recently participated in a census of their diversity numbers, but U.K. "[publishers] haven't been as vocal as maybe Vice has in their recent publicity,” said Simon Bevan, chief investment officer at Havas Media Group. And while these programs and reports are a good start, he said that "there's more work that needs to be done." "When you look at how media is changing globally…[young employees] are going to be the future leaders of our business," Bevan said. "You will still see that momentum continuing, and that will start to bring change as we progress over the future years.” Vice Media Group Expands Creative Offering With Acquisition of Pltfrmr