5% stake sold to Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, allowing it to expand into Europe and India

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Vice Media, the multi-platform purveyor of music, fashion and quixotic journalism from international trouble spots, has sold a 5% stake to Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox.

Fox, which was spun off from News Corp earlier this year, confirmed the $70m (£45m) deal, which marks the latest stage in the evolution of Vice from an off-beat Canadian magazine into a global brand frequently dubbed the hipsters' bible.

Murdoch has hinted at being an admirer of the Vice brand in the past, tweeting after a visit last year to Brooklyn, where Vice is based: "Who's heard of VICE media? Wild, interesting effort to interest millennials who don't read or watch established media. Global success."

The link-up allows Vice to expand into Europe and India with the help of 21st Century Fox's assets, which include stakes in Sky television channels and chimes with the declared aims of Vice's co-founder, Shane Smith, for his company to become "MTV, ESPN and CNN rolled into one".

Minority shareholders, which include the marketing group WPP, hold around 25% of Vice. Vice's founders will continue to have majority control of the board in a structure that Smith said "gives us the freedom to do what we want to do".

He told the Financial Times: "The reality is that MTV was bought by Viacom and CNN went to Time Warner. We have set ourselves up to build a global platform but we have maintained control."

Vice, which is involved in magazine publishing, film production, music recording and operates a range of online channels, has gained attention in recent times with a number of initiatives and stories that have trumped the established media.

One included the re-appearance in Guatemala of the on-the-run internet millionaire John McAfee in the company of a couple of young reporters from Vice. In February, a Vice film crew accompanied the flamboyant former NBA star Dennis Rodman on a trip to North Korea in an unlikely act of sports diplomacy.

Smith and some friends established Vice as a free and underground music magazine in his native Montreal 20 years ago after taking over a community title called the Voice.

• This article was amended on 17 August 2013. The original standfirst described Vice as a magazine. While Vice did indeed start as a magazine 20 years ago, today it can more accurately be described as a digital media and publishing group.