Vice and its Competitors.
Vice is the current working title of what was "The Voice of Montreal" launched in 1994. The name changed to Vice in 1996 following the editors buying out the original publisher Alix Laurent. British Vice launched in 2002 with the intention to "cover the things we are meant to be ashamed of."
i-D was a huge competitor of Vice and subsequently was bought by Vice Media in 2012. Paper Magazine is also a magazine with very similar concepts and ideas to Vice and is actually my preferred read.
What is a Profile Feature?
A profile feature is an article that explores a particular subject, be that an individual, a group or whole community of people. This is first done visually with the cover photo to draw you in and capture your intrigue about a topic you possibly know about and want to learn more, or are ignorant to and are seeing for the first time. And secondarily by the text on the inside spread of the magazine or newspaper, which should be mostly based on a thorough interview with the subject, the text will usually be accompanied by at least one other image.
Some examples of notable profile features are:
