Vice Media Will Stop Publishing 'Garage' Magazine
But the publication isn't shutting down entirely.
Vice Media will soon cease publishing Garage, a fashion-meets-art publication, according to a report by Business of Fashion — but the magazine isn't expected to totally shutter.
The announcement comes after a tough year for fashion media, as advertising budgets dropped off in response to declines in consumer spending. Garage in particular was projected to fall $4 million short of its originally expected $10 million in advertising in 2020. As a result, Vice is pulling funding away from Garage and is expected to instead invest more heavily in i-D, another fashion-focused title it owns. According to Business of Fashion, the company will stop publishing Garage in in the spring of this year, and employees will start receiving severance pay in March.
"As our company continues to expand, it is critical to focus on opportunities aligned with our strategy," a Vice representative said, in a statement to Business of Fashion. “The 10th anniversary edition this spring will celebrate all that the publication stands for. We wish Garage all the best as it moves forward into its next exciting phase."
Rather than shutting down entirely, though, Garage's controlling stakes will go back to its founder, Dasha Zhukova. Per Business of Fashion, she intends to return it to its roots as a "radical art object." However, her strategy for keeping the publication going isn't entirely clear yet: A few options include partnering with another media publisher or using the art museum after which the publication is named, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (which Zhukova also founded) to publish the magazine.
