Vice launches health vertical, Tonic
Vice has created its third channel this year, Tonic, focused on health. The channel will feature short- and long-form documentaries, as well as editorial series such as “International Mom Advice,” and “What I’m Freaking Out About Today.”
Tonic was first announced in April when the company noted that Kate Lowenstein, formerly at Prevention magazine, would run a health vertical. Vice also added Pulitzer Prize winning Siddhartha Mukherjee as the editor at large and Mike Darling, formerly from Men’s Health, as managing editor.
Tonic will be focused on “big-picture stories, leading-edge science, global health and politics, but also intimate personal accounts and advice for daily life,” Lowenstein said to Adweek.
In addition to original content, brand sponsored series is a big selling point of Tonic. Oscar Health Insurance and Tonic created “The Tonic Guide to Healthcare” to dive “into the guts of the healthcare system, examining our relationships with doctors, insurance plans and health policies.” Sutter Health is also slotted to create a series to be released in 2017.
“Health is the singular most important topic for us all,” said Andrew Creighton, publisher of Tonic and co-president of Vice Media, to Adweek. “Ultimately, it’s life or death.”
Vice has also built channels around gaming and finance, with ones around art, LGBTQ issues and travel apparently in the works for 2017.
"We found only 13 percent of millennials feel comfortable managing their own health," Creighton said. "If we can help with this, we'll have done our job."