Wall Street Journal: Launched in 1994 as a Montreal punk magazine, Vice Media has grown to 1,500 employees and operates in 36 countries. Vice now includes a thriving digital video operation and creative services agency, working with content giants like YouTube, 21st Century Fox and A&E. Smith first built an audience among millennials and hipsters with the print publication Vice. But it was Vice’s transition into video — a move that has yielded critically acclaimed documentaries and multiple online video channels — that turned the heads of old-media deal makers.