VICE Romania announced on Friday that it will close its newsroom and cease operations after 13 years of presence in the Romanian market.

“The reasons for the closure of the editorial office in Romania are objective, they did not depend on us or on our results. Everything that happened over the years, from the end of 2010, when VICE appeared in Romania, to this day, depended on us. That’s why we’ve collected below some of the dozens of voices that were heard on VICE Romania, so you can also have access to the plot,” VICE Romania said in a statement posted on its website on Friday.

Although VICE Romania did not give a reason for the closure, it comes in the context of reports in the United States since early May that Vice Media Group was preparing for bankruptcy after years of rapid expansion in many markets that ultimately proved unsustainable.

“Vice Media Group participated in a comprehensive evaluation of strategic alternatives and plans. “The company, its board and stakeholders remain focused on finding the best path forward for the company,” a Vice Media Group spokesman told Reuters at the time.

The rise of Vice coincided with the period of its brash co-founder, journalist Shane Smith, who built a media empire from a single magazine in Canada.

On May 15, the company officially declared bankruptcy in the United States.

The move comes as a number of other media and technology companies in the United States have announced layoffs due to the state of the U.S. economy and a sharp drop in advertising revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 20, BuzzFeed Inc. announced the closure of its news division, which, like VICE, had become known for its irreverent reporting and investigations.

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