So how did a cadre of Williamsburg hipsters blow off the worst economy for media companies since the Great Depression? Part of it was great instincts. Vice made big bets on original Web video years ahead of giants like Google and Yahoo, which are racing to license as much of it as they can now. Part of it was luck. Who could have foreseen that the neighborhood where Vice set up shop in 1999 would be the taste-making capital of the world a decade later? But the real secret weapon was a seriously connected grayhair, Tom Freston.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/01/03/tom-frestons-1-billion-revenge-ex-viacom-chief-helps-vice-become-the-next-mtv/