Well, I wouldn't say that Vice's ascent is based solely on its "news". It's a "cultural" magazine, of sorts and is plugged into all kinds of stuff and they were early promoters of brands like American Apparel and are involved with shit like The Creator's Project. What I'm talking about is that the snarky rag it used to be has become something that people look to while forming their early worldview.
People look to VICE because they see it as better than a FOX News or a CNN. When the mainstream news channels look really unreliable, it is easy to sneak under the radar with a news outlet that is "not as bad." You can be snarky when something like FOX News is running about.
I don't mean that bad news has appeal. I mean that the wold has had a very dark hue for more than a decade, which has created a condition in which publications like Vice have become attractive. The culture itself is darker. You see it in other aspects of pop culture. Nihilist comedy seems to be popular right now. I think that's another expression of this trend. Nothing matters. Nothing's sacred. Skin deep is as far as it goes.