“If you’re going to make cars, you better like cars. Ford liked cars. He was into like, tires and shit,” says Vice Media boss Shane Smith. “If you’re going to make content, you’d better love content, and understand what it is.” Well said.

Vice Media editorial staffers have officially ratified their first union contract, which gives them substantial raises, severance pay, and other benefits. The vote was 73-2.

Editorial employees at Vice Media, who unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East last summer, have tentatively agreed on their first union contract. It comes with a big raise.

An ad agency in London owned by Vice Media is now doing work for the tobacco giant Philip Morris International, the world’s most popular cigarette manufacturer.

Vice’s UK staffers are working to form a union. Their US counterparts unionized last year in search of higher pay, among other things, and are in contract negotiations now.

In one short month, Vice Media’s new cable network “Viceland” will launch. It has a business model that could revolutionize television advertising.

A gentle “roast” of Vice boss Shane Smith last week by friends such as the head of HBO and Johnny Knoxville reportedly turned out to be one big “lovefest.” (Gawker was initially invited to cover this event, and then disinvited, for some reason.)

When you hear companies talk about how great their salaries are these days, it can make you wonder why their workers ever wanted to unionize in the first place.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that writers at Williamsburg-based Vice Media have voted to unionize:

Richard Beckman, who spent five years as president of Conde Nast Media Group, has been hired by Vice Media, where he will join a former White House official as an executive at what is still quaintly referred to as an “edgy, brash media brand.”

Vice is a company that would like you to think it is cool all of the time. In fact, Vice is only cool when it does stories about Ebola and stuff. It is not so cool when it tries to be the cool face of Bank of America, which would like to rip you off.

"Perhaps the surest sign of Vice's impact is its influence on culture: It is perceived by many (including marketers at top agencies and brands) as the arbiter of cool."

Earlier this year, Vice Media explored the possibility of taking over the CNN-owned cable network HLN. At an employee meeting this week, CNN boss Jeff Zucker reportedly said Vice boss Shane Smith is "an asshole." Wrong, Jeff—you're both assholes.

"To live is to suffer," Nietzsche said. "To survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."