The Messenger Is Shutting Down

Isaac SchorrJan 31st, 2024, 4:05 pm
 

The Messenger, a high-profile news startup founded by media entrepreneur Jimmy Finkelstein, will close after less than a year of existence, according to The New York Times.

Despite launching with 300 journalists — many of them high-profile hires from prestigious publications — and plans to hire over 500 more over the course of its first year in existence, it is expected to stop publishing in the near future.

Mediaite had previously reported on the fledgling publication’s finances based on documents outlining expenditures. From that report:

The situation is indeed dire. Mediaite obtained from a source The Messenger’s financials for a recent month. It boasted some eye-popping expenditures, including $142,500 on travel, meals, and entertainment. The Messenger spent the most on personnel ($4.1 million) and facilities ($241,295) — presumably its sprawling office in New York, and others in Washington D.C. and West Palm Beach. The Times reported The Messenger spent more than $8 million on office space last year. For some perspective: Semafor spent its first year in a decidedly more humble abode: a cramped space above Umberto’s Clam House in New York’s Little Italy.

Despite its pre-launch success in attracting talent, The Messenger endured numerous personnel issues during its short life.

Within two weeks of launching, three high-profile editors resigned over frustrations with internal dynamics at the start-up.

One of those editors, Gregg Birnbaum, explained his exit by noting that The Messenger’s “rapacious and blind desperate chasing of traffic — by the nonstop gerbil wheel rewriting story after story that has first appeared in other media outlets in the hope that something, anything, will go viral” had been “a disappointment to many of the outstanding quality journalists at The Messenger who are trying to focus on meaningful original and distinctive reporting.”

The soon-to-be defunct website’s plan to quickly build an enormous audience and haul in huge revenue streams had been doubted both publicly and privately by many industry insiders. Puck’s Dylan Byers put it most bluntly earlier this month when he characterized it as “batshit crazy.”

In a statement to staff, Finkelstein said that he was “personally devastated” by the “painfully hard decision.”

“The industry has faced extraordinary challenges this past year. The economic headwinds have left many media companies fighting for survival. Unfortunately, as a new company, we encountered even more significant challenges than others and could not survive those headwinds,” he wrote.

This is a breaking news story and may be updated. 

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