Vice and BuzzFeed were meant to be the future of news. What happened? | Jane Martinson

Their young audience made them the envy of the media's old guard. But, ultimately, they couldn't convert this into profit

After Rupert Murdoch invested tens of millions of pounds in his digital publishing company in 2013, Shane Smith, boss of Vice Media, laughed at how much old media companies wanted his sexy young business. Acknowledging that they were being left behind, they would offer billions: And we keep saying no, no, no'".

Soon afterwards, BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti, Smith's closest rival for the attentions of both young eyeballs and wealthy older men, was in London to talk about plans for his own global domination. There is over-preoccupation with the money he said. He tried to avoid that, because, then we're not thinking about what the company is doing but what it's worth".

Jane Martinson is a Guardian columnist