Classroom Debate: Is Reinventing a Media Brand More Creative or Strategic? (Use Vice Hiring Moves)

Hook: Turn your class’s frustration with bland case studies into a live debate about power, purpose and pivot

Teachers: if your students complain that business case studies feel theoretical, or you struggle to scaffold media-industry debates that provoke critical thinking, this lesson kit is built for you. Using Vice Media’s recent C‑suite hires in late 2025/early 2026 as a real‑time case study, this classroom activity turns brand reinvention—an often foggy topic—into a structured debate that helps learners weigh the roles of creative vision and executive strategy in media reinvention.

The bottom line up front (inverted pyramid)

In 2026, media reinvention is rarely a pure creative or purely strategic act; it’s a negotiated outcome shaped by leadership hires, capital priorities, and market signals. This lesson kit gives teachers a debate format, primary-source prompts, a grading rubric, and classroom-ready materials that use Vice Media’s new executive hires—CFO Joe Friedman, EVP of Strategy Devak Shah, and CEO Adam Stotsky—as the jumping-off point to explore whether reinvention is driven more by creative vision or executive strategy.

Why this matters to your students

• Real-world relevance: Vice’s post‑bankruptcy reboot is a clear example of a legacy‑digital brand pivoting to production and studio work—a 2026 trend as media companies chase diversified revenue.
• Skills built: critical thinking, evidence-based argumentation, media literacy, and leadership analysis.
• Classroom outcomes: ready-to-deploy debate structure, customizable readings, assessment rubric and extension projects for deeper inquiry.

Context: What Vice’s 2025–2026 hires reveal about brand reinvention

Late 2025 and early 2026 saw media companies recalibrate after streaming saturation and the creator-economy shakeout. Vice’s hiring of a veteran finance chief as CFO and an experienced biz‑dev executive as EVP of Strategy—alongside a CEO with NBCUniversal production experience—signals a pivot from ad‑driven digital publishing toward production, IP exploitation and studio partnerships.

Those hires are not neutral: they are strategic choices that allocate attention and resources. But they also create new platforms for creative teams—if the executives prioritize funding and deal access, creators gain opportunities to execute visionary projects. That tension—the interplay between resource control and creative ambition—is the exact debate your students will explore.

Debate format: Classroom-ready structure

Use a modified Oxford-style team debate, optimized for classes (45–90 minutes). Two teams: Team Creative Vision argues that reinvention is primarily led by editorial and creative leadership; Team Executive Strategy argues that C‑suite hires and business strategy drive reinvention.

Roles and composition

• Team size: 3–5 students per side (smaller classes: 2 per side + 1 adjudicator)
• Moderator/teacher: manages time, enforces rules, and grades
• Adjudicators: optional peers or a teacher panel
• Researchers: students assigned to gather evidence from article excerpts and industry reports

Timing (45-minute model)

1. 5 minutes: teacher sets context and distributes source packets
2. 10 minutes: teams prepare (notes, opening statements)
3. 6 minutes: Team Creative opening (3 min speech + 3 min cross‑examination)
4. 6 minutes: Team Executive opening (3 min speech + 3 min cross‑examination)
5. 8 minutes: Rebuttals (2×4 min)
6. 6 minutes: Audience Q&A (class asks questions)
7. 4 minutes: Closing statements (2×2 min)
8. Optional: 10 minutes grading & feedback

Alternative: Lincoln‑Douglas for short classes

Use a 1×1 format for quick debates—perfect for 30‑minute seminars. Single speaker per side, 6 minutes each with a 2‑minute rebuttal and immediate peer voting.

Primary materials: What to give students

Prepare a concise packet (one page each) that includes:

• Short summary of Vice’s hires (CFO, EVP Strategy, CEO background) and why they matter
• Key excerpts from late 2025/early 2026 business coverage noting the company pivot
• Two short industry trend blurbs: (1) studio/production pivot, (2) post‑streaming monetization strategies
• A short glossary: C‑suite roles (CFO, CEO, EVP Strategy), biz dev, IP, production studio
• A factsheet of metrics students can cite (audience reach, revenue streams—use fictionalized or anonymized numbers if necessary to avoid inaccurate claims)

Source suggestions and optional reading (for deeper prep)

• Primary news coverage of Vice’s C‑suite changes (late 2025–early 2026)
• Profiles of Adam Stotsky, Joe Friedman, and Devak Shah—focus on career history to infer priorities
• Academic/industry briefs on media reinvention, 2024–2026 trends about streaming consolidation and studio plays
• Short podcasts or video interviews about company turnarounds

Teacher cheat sheet: Framing the motion

Motion: "This house believes that brand reinvention in modern media is driven more by executive strategy than by creative vision."

Teacher tips: Remind students that

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