What makes Vice successful? -- for one thing, staying "in character"

Journalist and blogger Ryan Bigge has posted an article about Vice magazine he wrote for Masthead, but which was never published. It details the things he learned about Vice's success while researching his Master's degree thesis. Among them, the fact that the magazine always stays "in character" no matter whether it's run in Montreal or (now) New York, whether it's publishing or running a record