The Messenger, a news site that set out to shake up the media industry with a playbook borrowed from yesterday’s doomed publishing start-ups, will close its doors, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.
It is unclear when The Messenger will stop publishing.
By closing its doors less than a year after its launch, The Messenger will now be one of the biggest bankruptcies in the annals of online information. And its collapse is the biggest blow in recent months to the news industry, which is reeling from a relentless series of budget cuts.
The company hired about 300 people, including experienced journalists at publications from organizations such as Politico, Reuters, NBC News and the Associated Press, who joined the company in hopes that it would fulfill its promise to introduce an important new nonpartisan voice in the American world. current landscape.
Jimmy Finkelstein, founder and chief executive of The Messenger, has spoken about The Messenger’s editorial ambitions, telling the New York Times in March that he wanted the website to be reminiscent of major journalistic institutions like “60 Minutes” and Vanity Fair. He criticized media coverage from networks like CNN and Fox News, pointing out what he called inconsistencies in coverage of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the southern border.
Mr. Finkelstein and The Messenger’s president, magazine veteran Richard Beckman, planned to hire 550 journalists within a year, which would put the website in a weight class with publications like the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Beckman predicted that The Messenger would generate $50 million this year. In a demo last year for The New York Times, Mr. Beckman said he wanted The Messenger to make readers fall in love with media again, illustrating the point with a sizzling reel scored by Dire’s hit Straits “Money For Nothing”. »
Mr. Finkelstein, an entrepreneur with decades of experience running publications like The Hollywood Reporter and The Hill, attracted $50 million in investment for this untested startup. Backers of the Messenger include Josh Harris, co-founder of private equity giant Apollo, and Thomas Peterffy, former chief executive of Interactive Brokers. Mr. Harris was a backer of The Hill, which Mr. Finkelstein sold to Nexstar in 2020 for $130 million.
But their money was quickly spent. Toward the end of last year, the company had generated just $3 million and had just $1.8 million in cash. The Messenger lost about $38 million – the majority of its initial $50 million funding round – and was spending more than $8 million on offices in Florida, Washington, D.C. and New York.
Things went downhill quickly after launch. Noted political editor Gregg Birnbaum has resigned after clashing with The Messenger’s chief growth officer, Neetzan Zimmerman. Employees were tired of demands to mass produce stories based on competitors’ articles. The site’s debut was warmly received by industry critics like Columbia Journalism Review And Niéman Laboratory.
Things have gotten worse in recent weeks. Mr. Beckman announced his departure, citing health concerns in a social media post. The company began to run out of money. He is cutting staff and trying to save money. And Mr. Finkelstein made one last effort to raise money to keep the company afloat.
But even as the company lost cash, Mr. Finkelstein remained outwardly optimistic. In early January, it said it had already raised $10 million and planned to roll out an ambitious line of products, including Messenger TV, a video unit.
Instead, the company joined the many news outlets that have announced layoffs and buyouts over the past two weeks. The cuts have affected popular magazines like Time and Sports Illustrated, digital publishers like Business Insider and traditional newspapers like The Los Angeles Times.
A confluence of problems is causing the carnage, including plummeting advertising revenue, disappointing digital subscriptions, corporate infighting and deep budget cuts.
Messenger’s fatal flaw was relying too much on tech companies like Google and Meta for its readership instead of interacting directly with its audience through newsletters and in-person events, said S. Mitra Kalita, founder of Epicenter-NYC And Average URL.
“The Messenger was built from the expertise of an Internet that no longer exists,” Ms. Kalita said. “Facebook wasn’t going to show their links, even if those headlines were clickable.”
