Vice Media has named Ciel Hunter, an 11-year veteran of the youth-oriented media company, to the position of head of content overseeing operations across mobile and digital platforms.
Hunter takes over for Alex Miller, who is returning to Vice’s London office as the newly appointed creative director of Viceland EMEA. Under Miller’s tenure, Vice launched Broadly, its first female-centric digital channel.
As head of content, Hunter will oversee Vice Media’s digital presence across the web, including its video and editorial arms, as well as on platforms like Snapchat and Verizon’s Go90, in addition to new and emerging platforms. Hunter also will work to integrate Vice’s existing verticals with the recently launched Viceland TV network.
In addition, under her purview will be the six new digital sites Vice plans to launch this year, covering health, gaming, travel, LGBTQ, money and sustainability. Those will join Vice’s existing 11 owned-and-operated sites.
Hunter “is a perfect example of what makes us unique,” Shane Smith, Vice founder and CEO, said in a statement, noting that she joined the company as an intern and received increasing responsibilities as the company grew. “Knowing her as I do, I can tell you Vice and our other verticals are in for quite a ride in the years to come.”
Added Hunter, “Vice continues to revolutionize the way we tell stories to our audience around the world… I’m thrilled to get working with our writers, editors, and photographers to take Vice to the next level.”
Hunter has previously served as the lead creative director of the Creators Project, Vice and Intel’s arts-and-culture channel. As executive creative director for Vice Media, she has led the company’s owned-and-operated music channels, Noisey and Thump, and oversaw talent relations. She has also led strategy and creative on partnerships with YouTube (including producing the YouTube Music Awards); Apple Music; and Live Nation’s joint venture with Vice, Live Nation TV. Most recently, Hunter led the effort to build out Vice’s virtual-reality projects, managing Viceland’s partnership with Samsung to produce VR content.
Vice’s owned-and-operated sites in the U.S. attracted 28.7 million unique visitors in April, up 63% year over year, according to comScore. The company’s total unique monthly online visitors in the U.S., including third-party sites for which it sells advertising, fell 17% in February from the previous month, per comScore, stemming from a decline at partner website Distractify.com. But aggregate traffic has since rebounded to reach 60.8 million uniques for April.
