Embattled news start-up The Messenger shuts down and staff accounts are deactivated after less than a year in business
- The Messenger employees’ accounts were deactivated shortly after 1 p.m. on Wednesday
- The startup was launched in May 2023 by CEO and founder Jimmy Finkelstein with $50 million in funding
- The company reportedly lost tens of millions of dollars and generated only about $3 million in revenue
News starter The Messenger is reportedly shutting down less than a year after launch.
According to employees, their account was deactivated shortly after 1:00 PM PST on Wednesday The Hollywood Reporter.
Editor-in-chief Dan Wakeford told staff: ‘I’m not aware. I’m trying to figure it out now,” after employees asked if there would be an update from management.
The Messenger was launched in May 2023 by CEO and founder Jimmy Finkelstein with $50 million in funding, reported Axios.
The company reportedly lost tens of millions of dollars and generated only about $3 million in revenue. It was originally expected to bring in $100 million in revenue by 2024.
The Messenger was launched in May 2023 by CEO and founder Jimmy Finkelstein (pictured) with $50 million in funding and is now being discontinued
Funding for The Messenger could come from the likes of Josh Harris, co-founder of private equity giant Apollo, and Thomas Peterffy, the former CEO of Interactive Brokers, according to The New York Times.
Finkelstein tried to save the company and said in early January that he had raised $10 million.
The organization hired about 300 hundred people, including journalists from Politico, Reuters, NBC News and The Associated Press.
Finkelstein and The Messenger’s president, Richard Beckman, planned to hire 550 journalists within a year.
According to its website, “The Messenger was founded to champion balanced journalism in an age of bias, subjectivity and misinformation.”
After the publication launched, its politics editor, Gregg Birnbaum, quit after a clash with its Chief Growth Officer, Neetzan Zimmerman.
Finkelstein and The Messenger’s chairman, Richard Beckman (pictured), planned to hire 550 journalists within a year of launch
The site received poor reviews and employees reportedly grew tired of complying with the demands.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times cut more than a fifth of its workforce — one of the worst days in the paper’s 142-year history — as the paper faces a $40 million loss in revenue.
The newspaper’s owner, biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said the loss of 115 employees was necessary because the company loses $30 to $40 million annually.
“Today’s decision is painful for everyone, but it is imperative that we act urgently and take steps to build a sustainable and thriving paper for the next generation. We are committed to doing this,” Soon-Shiong said.
News publishers have suffered big losses after Meta’s Facebook distanced itself from news content, ended news media partnerships and banned Canadian users from sharing news under a law requiring tech companies to pay fees to news organizations.