Vice Expands Further Into Art with Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Magazine

Vice has a number of different takes on art and the art market. But the massive media brand seems to want other avenues to gain traction. Recode explains:

Today, the company […] purchase[d] of a majority stake in Garage Magazine. The small, bi-annual publication (which is offered in both Russian and English) is run by fashion world figure Dasha Zhukova, who’s married to Russian oligarch and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich. […]

Vice’s bread and butter is making video, and the company said in a statement that it “will deliver a range of original [Garage Mag] editorial and video programming,” in addition to Garage staff expansions in New York and London.

The Financial Times follows on with a little more detail:

Vice said it would beef up Garage’s online presence, building a digital video channel, expanding its editorial team and launching new international editions. Ms Zhukova, Garage’s editor-in-chief, will continue in her role. […]

Tom Punch, Vice’s global executive creative director, said the magazine would generate “an arsenal of creative ideas” for the company.

The Financial Times came back for a second bite at the subject:

With almost infinite resources, why would Ms Zhukova need Vice Media? The answer seems to be that, all the money in the world cannot buy you reach, and Garage (despite its claim to a readership of 90,000) has remained little known internationally. Vice, which is energetically expanding into markets with large millennial populations (South America, India) obviously wants a route in to the complex Russian market, as well as to the art world, and it promises Garage a new video channel while “expanding the global footprint” of the print product, with Ms Zhukova still as editor-in-chief.

No details of the deal have been released. But somehow, one doubts that it is about the money.

Vice is buying into Garage, the arty mag run by billionaire Roman Abramovich’s wife  (Recode)

Vice Media buys Dasha Zhukova’s Garage art magazine (Financial Times)

Dasha Zhukova: First Moscow, now the world (Financial Times)