Ryan Fuss is leaving behind the relative peace and tranquility of Cottage Life for the madcap antics of Dead Set on Life, one of several Canadian series on the docket for Vice Media Canada’s upcoming specialty channel Viceland.
Concluding a search that began several months ago, Toronto-based Vice Media Canada hired Fuss, most recently senior vice-president of content solutions with Blue Ant Media, as its first-ever chief revenue officer.
He begins his new role, which Vice Canada managing director Ryan Archibald described as “bringing sales to life,” on Dec. 14.
Vice is still working out the reporting structure, but head of marketing Carly Gray and VP of sales Shawn Phelan will report into Fuss. “He’s obviously not going to be in charge of marketing, but he will have a hand in anything that touches upon the services that we offer to our clients,” said Archibald.
Fuss has spent 15 years in various sales roles with companies ranging from traditional media like Alliance Atlantis (now part of Shaw Media) and CHUM Television to new-media entities like Yahoo, Glassbox Television and, most recently, Blue Ant.
He was selected from a list of five shortlisted candidates, bringing a pedigree for innovation to the role. “He’s excited about pushing things forward,” said Archibald. “He’s always looking for the next thing. Everybody says that’s what they’re trying to do, but there’s only a handful that are good at moving things in that direction.
“As a youth-oriented company, we should be at the forefront of a lot of these things, so Ryan is going to help us get ahead of the game in that regard.”
With Blue Ant, Fuss played a key role in developing brand-friendly properties and marketing programs, an area that Vice is keen to develop further with its own in-house agency, Virtue.
“That’s something Ryan set up [at Blue Ant] and I think he’ll be an asset building that out here,” said Archibald. “He understands the mentality of attacking the market from a smaller offering and making the most of it.”
Fuss’s hire comes at a pivotal point for Vice, which announced a $100 million joint-venture partnership with Rogers late last year and is partnering with the communications giant on the new specialty TV channel Viceland set to debut early next year.
Vice recently opened a new 25,000-square foot studio space employing 140 people in Toronto’s west end as it prepares for the Q1 launch of Viceland.
Fuss will have direct responsibility for all revenue streams for Vice, including licensing and distribution agreements stemming from the company’s rapidly expanding production business (it currently has nine Canadian shows in production).
Vice is also exploring feature film development, though Archibald said nothing is imminent. “The conversations that are happening make it look like a promising endeavour,” he said.
The company is also looking to add “one or two more” content verticals in 2016, though Archibald would not disclose what they would be, and is also contemplating a venture into scripted TV.
“It’s a very tricky thing,” he said. “We have to be very cautious about how we step into the scripted world. We’re going to be very scrutinized, so we’re not going to come to market unless we’re absolutely 100% confident it’s the perfect way to jump in. If we’re not there in 2016, it won’t happen.”
