Former employees of The Messenger, a news startup that abruptly went out of business on Wednesday, filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against the company.
The Messenger, a digital media company founded in May 2023, told employees Wednesday afternoon that it would be shutting down. As of Wednesday night, readers trying to access the site only see his email address: info@themessenger.com.
new york times first reported Closing. According to the complaint, former employees said they learned they were no longer employed because of the report.
“Within minutes of the story being published, the Messenger confirmed to approximately 300 employees that they were being terminated with immediate effect,” the complaint said.
The show’s former senior producer, Pilar Beréndez-Desha, filed the lawsuit in the Southern District of New York.
The complaint alleges that employees were fired without cause and without substantial warning or written notice, in violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Labor laws require most employers to provide 60 days’ notice before planned closures or mass layoffs.
The former employees also raised a second allegation that the company violated the New York State Vigilance Act. New York state requires employers to give 90 days’ notice before closing or mass layoffs.
The former employees want to get back “up to 60 days of wages and benefits.”
Messenger founder Jimmy Finkelstein, who previously owned The Hill, said his vision for Messenger is “a hybrid of the Washington Post and the Daily Mail.”
Mr. Finkelstein and the media’s president, Richard Beckman, promised to hire hundreds of reporters and generate $100 million in revenue through advertising and events. By the end of 2023, the organization had earned just $3 million and had $1.8 million in cash on hand, the Times reported.
The company said in early January that it was laying off about 20 employees and planning to raise money again.
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