What? Why on earth does Vice have 3000 employees? I thought publishing companies long since switched to having all their content creators freelance.

Edit: I thought OP was exaggerating, but nope, per this random website they have/had at least 2,300.

https://rocketreach.co/vice-media-profile_b5c6f6cef42e0cd9

Vice Media Group is a conglomerate with a bunch of other stuff besides the magazine/website. An ad agency [1], a tv/film studio [2], another film studio [3], etc. It seems like they’ll be keeping a lot of that too. The linked message implies they’re shutting down the ad-supported journalism part of the company and doubling down on contract work.

[1] https://www.virtueworldwide.com/

[2] https://studios.vice.com/

[3] https://www.pulsefilms.com/

I assume it was that high to get more funding? like a VC startup style? no other reason make sense

That alone explains what’s happening.