On the day of news website Messenger’s demise, insiders painted a chaotic scene of checked-out bosses and furious staff. Some of them had already been “fired” because they didn’t trust CEO Jimmy Finkelstein.
Accounts from several of the roughly 300 journalists fired during the start-up’s bankruptcy on Wednesday showed that high-paid editor-in-chief Dan Wakeford and his embattled staff were working together, according to insiders who spoke to the Post. This shows that the rift between them was deepening. Thursday.
Amid news that Mr. Finkelstein is scrambling to raise funds to save the company, which was launched last May with $50 million, employees feel their fate is already decided. Believing this, he complained of poor health and either “quit his job” or “worked harder.” ” There was a false hope that a last-minute scoop could show potential investors that Messenger was worth saving.
“Top editors were assigning stories two days before the site shut down,” said one staffer. “The leaders had no idea what was going to happen.”
Even Wakeford was not informed of the impending implosion, and is said to have written on Slack, the company’s internal messaging system, that he had no idea the site would be shut down after the news first broke. There is.
Other top editors were also kept in the dark, with one female boss slamming a staffer who asked questions about the company’s dire future.
As tensions rose, the editor was angered that she had the “gall” to ask if she knew if the site was going to be shut down.
“If you’re in a high position, it’s your place to know what’s going on,” said one reporter who felt the editor’s wrath.
Late Thursday, the laid-off employees fired back, accusing New York State of violating the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act by failing to notify employees at least 60 days before the mass killing. filed a class action lawsuit.
Mr. Finkelstein did not respond to requests for comment.
Mood remained high, with fired journalists pointing to a lack of leadership and communication as Messenger’s tragic flaws.
Many of them accused Mr. Wakeford of paying around $900,000 for allegedly being “MIA” from his sprawling, expensive headquarters in the Financial District, especially when it came to important editorial decisions.
“People didn’t know he was British,” said one surprised staffer, who said she first heard Wakeford speak during an emergency meeting two and a half weeks ago. – when reports of the Messenger’s impending death surfaced.
By then, Mr. Wakeford had a fractious relationship with Mr. Finkelstein, and Mr. Wakeford was said to have been “restricted” from holding meetings or sending emails to staff in order to improve company culture and morale. said a person familiar with the matter.
“There was no management. There was no leadership,” said the veteran editor, who had worked at major networks and news organizations before being lured to Messenger. “I’ve never seen so much dysfunction.”
Wakeford, who was hired to run the site after previously heading up celebrity gore for magazines such as People and InTouch, has a hard time understanding breaking news, especially coverage of Middle East wars. sources claim.
“The only time he lights up is when we talk about Taylor Swift. What was he doing directing the press effort?” the insider said.
Another staffer said editors were “silent” about how they covered big stories like the Israel-Hamas war, only to regularly interject, “Did this celebrity break up?” he added.
Mr. Wakeford denied the allegations that he rarely showed up at his office at 195 Broadway and denied that he was making nearly $1 million.
“I’ve been in the New York office more than any other executive in the company,” Wakeford told the Post Thursday. “I worked to the bone to make the brand a success.”
In recent days, Mr. Finkelstein has been trying to finalize a financing deal and told the Post on Tuesday that his staff would learn their fate within the next 48 hours.
he also held talks Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times The Hollywood Reporter said he laid off a quarter of his staff last week and was considering buying Messenger, but that offer fell through.
Earlier this month, a group of conservative media and business executives led by Omeed Malik, an investor who backed Tucker Carlson’s new media venture, met with Finkelstein at Mar-a-Lago and reportedly bought a stake in News. The company reportedly offered $30 million for a 51% stake. The site is valued at $60 million.
Finkelstein told employees during the meeting that he would find the money to keep the site afloat, before reprimanding employees that leaks about Messenger’s finances were “making it hard to do our jobs.” The employee said he tried to reassure him.
The person said Mr. Finkelstein was “rambling” about meetings with big-name investors at Mar-a-Lago and expanding the Messenger team.
“It was wild,” the source said. “That made things worse. That’s when we all realized something was wrong.”
After the sudden closure, that perception was further exacerbated by the realization that retirement benefits would be unavailable and health benefits would quickly disappear.
All they received was a FedEx account number to return the company-issued MacBook to the New York office.
“We have news. No one will send the laptop back. I can promise you that,” the staff member said.
Mr. Wakeford, like the rest of the store, was drawn to the lofty promises of Mr. Finkelstein and his deputy, Richard Beckman. “Messenger will reach 100 million readers and bring in $100 million in revenue in 2024,” Beckman gushed to the New York Times before its launch.
The two envision a 500-person newsroom for the Times that would produce the hard-hitting stories seen on “60 Minutes” and the punchy profiles and topical investigations seen on Vanity Fair. he said.
The reality of capturing only a fraction of that traffic hit hard in November when the company had just 12.5 million unique viewers and generated $3 million in revenue with a staff of 300. I received it.
“Most of our top news stories were about gang rape and foreigners,” the staffer said. “There were no editorial standards. The motto, whether they said it out loud or not, was protect traffic at all costs.”
Senior executives at the company blamed Mr. Beckman (who made $1.5 million, sources said) on an outdated media strategy that contributed to the company’s downfall.
Beckman did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Beckman, an executive known for aggressively increasing ad revenue at magazine giant Condé Nast, warned employees in November that the site was running out of money.
CNBC reported The company spent about $39 million on hiring, ended 2023 with a net loss of $43 million, and said it laid off 20 employees in early January to cut costs.
Still, even as the endgame neared, Finkelstein denied reports that he was considering shutting down due to a lack of funding.
Meanwhile, Mr. Beckman resigned in October, and sources told the newspaper that he and Mr. Finkelstein “did not see eye to eye” on the direction of the business.
The pair, who were partners in various media ventures including the now-defunct Prometheus Global Media and Mr. Finkelstein’s publication The Hill, which he sold in 2021, are no longer together, according to people close to the situation. He says he hasn’t talked.
