{"id":72490,"date":"2024-01-31T23:02:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T23:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/31\/media-startup-the-messenger-disintegrates-leaving-staff-nothing-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2024-01-31T23:02:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T23:02:20","slug":"media-startup-the-messenger-disintegrates-leaving-staff-nothing-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/31\/media-startup-the-messenger-disintegrates-leaving-staff-nothing-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Media startup The Messenger disintegrates, leaving staff nothing | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"


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They say don\u2019t shoot the messenger, but what if The Messenger shoots itself?<\/p>\n

Media startup The Messenger burst on the scene last May with $50 million dollars in hand, aggressively hiring journalists to build an \u201cunbiased\u201d digital newsroom. Instead, its staff found out through a New York Times article today that the publication is shutting down. According to employees\u2019 social media posts<\/a>, the laid off workers will not receive any severance, and their healthcare coverage will end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing I saw in The Messenger\u2019s slack was a panicked colleague writing \u2018wait, what about our insurance coverage, I have a surgery boo\u2014\u2019 and then we all got booted out!!!\u201d said journalist Jordan Hoffman in a post on X.<\/p>\n

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The last thing I saw in The Messenger’s slack was a panicked colleague writing “wait, what about our insurance coverage, I have a surgery boo\u2014” and then we all got booted out!!!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jordan Hoffman (@jhoffman) January 31, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The journalism industry hasn\u2019t had a great year, in part due to declining digital ad sales<\/a> across the board. But The Messenger\u2019s implosion is shockingly egregious, even in a time when 3,000 journalists have been laid off in the last year.<\/p>\n

Founded by Jimmy Finkelstein (the former owner of The Hollywood Reporter and The Hill), The Messenger had lost about $38 million of its startup capital and only generated $3 million by late last year, per the New York Times<\/a>. At launch, Finkelstein claimed the company would grow to make $100 million in revenue<\/a> after its first year, but it only lasted about nine months.<\/p>\n

The Messenger had been trying to raise additional capital in the hours leading up to its demise. But it failed to secure the funding it needed, which raises the question of why the publication needed to raise more money so soon, anyway.<\/p>\n

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This is lower than low. To go on a hiring spree, wildly mismanage millions of dollars and then leave hundreds of people with no way to support themselves after working them to the bone is despicable. If any The Messenger reporters are starting a layoff fund please share! https:\/\/t.co\/cN1YB100UN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Tonya Riley (@TonyaJoRiley) January 31, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last few weeks, literally until last night, we exhausted every option available and have endeavored to raise sufficient capital to reach profitability,\u201d Finkelstein wrote. \u201cUnfortunately, we have been unable to do so, which is why we haven\u2019t shared the news with you until now. This is truly the last thing I wanted, and I am deeply sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like pretty much every other company that has conducted layoffs in the last few years, Finkelstein cited vague \u201ceconomic headwinds\u201d in his note to staff about the closure (which, we cannot emphasize enough, came\u00a0after\u00a0<\/em>staff learned that they lost their jobs from a New York Times article). Still, Finkelstein has not addressed just how it\u2019s possible to burn through so much money so quickly.<\/p>\n

From the get-go, media experts were skeptical<\/a> of The Messenger\u2019s game plan, which was to leverage social media referral traffic to generate ad revenue. This strategy for a media business might have worked fifteen years ago, but this isn\u2019t the era of the BuzzFeed boom (just look at that company\u2019s stock price). At launch, Nieman Lab<\/a> noted that The Messenger was publishing a new story every two minutes, some of which were only one sentence long. Though Finkelstein\u2019s ambitions to build a large-scale, unbiased media machine were lofty, they were ultimately doomed to fail. Sadly, that failure means financial uncertainty and precarious healthcare coverage for its workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot fathom doing this to anyone,\u201d wrote<\/a> former Messenger staffer Madeline Fitzgerald on X. \u201cI don\u2019t [know] why you would treat employees like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n