Billionaire Jimmy Finklestein’s news start-up The Messenger is “out of money” after launching just five months ago, according to a report Tuesday.
The online site, which paid top dollar to bring in a roster of experienced editors and reporters, has had anemic web traffic as it struggles to gain a financial foothold, The Daily Beast reported.
The Messenger president Richard Beckman has quietly told journalists at the company — which launched in May — that the site is “out of money,” according to the outlet.
The revelation has caused anxious staffers to push to unionize the newsroom and demand that management hold a town hall to address their concerns, the report said.
Aside from financial worries, employees are also concerned about the outlet’s recent partnership with an artificial intelligence firm, as well as secrecy about the site’s traffic, the Daily Beast said.
A company spokesperson did not comment specifically on the Daily Beast’s story but said The Messenger is still growing its team and that it’s traffic is “through the roof.” It did not provide traffic figures, however.
“The Messenger is doing extraordinarily well. We are breaking important stories, launching new verticals and adding people to the team,” the rep told The Post.
“Traffic is through the roof. We are building one of the next great media companies in the US and we couldn’t be more excited about the future of the Company.”
Based on Similarweb’s external traffic analysis provided by Nieman Lab, The Messenger currently ranks 195th among US news sites, which is similar numbers to local Texas news stations,
Aside from the traffic, employees have raised eyebrows over the company’s leadership and the media company’s strategy.
Editor in chief Dan Wakeford isn’t a constant presence in the newsroom, and there’s unease over the involvement of Finklestein, a former part owner of The Hollywood Reporter and The Hill who amassed $50 million to fund the venture, sources confirmed to The Post.
Finklestein, a self-proclaimed friend of former President Donald Trump, regularly sends editors story ideas and tips, the source said.
The spokesperson said Wakeford still has “complete editorial control” and that Finklestein’s ideas are merely “editorial suggestions to the team.”
To some in the media, the 74-year-old Finklestein doomed The Messenger before it even launched. The owner told The New York Times in a splashy, pie-in-the-sky profile that his site would launch with roughly 175 journalists in New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. He added that the company would eventually employ around 550 journalists — about as many as the Los Angeles Times.
A source with knowledge said roughly 200 journalists are currently employed by The Messenger.
Beckman chimed in that The Messenger will generate more than $100 million in revenue next year as it lures 100 million monthly readers — all while turning a profit.
Media experts called Beckman’s goals “delusional,” and expressed how difficult it is to create a media brand from scratch when the Times profile came out in March.
Prior to launch, Finklestein and Beckman doled out fat salaries to lure journalists with the promise of covering news from a “non-partisan” lens with an eye towards producing investigative stories and flashy features à la “60 Minutes” and “Vanity Fair.”
But those promises have largely turned out to be empty, as the company has pushed journalists to pump out “clickbait” stories and aggregate news in order to amp up traffic.
Meanwhile, employees have grown anxious that The Messenger recently announced a deal with Seekr, an AI company.
While the press release suggested the partnership would help flag “clickbait” and “eliminate bias,” staffers fear they’ll be replaced by AI bots that will essentially pump out copy faster than they could.
Exacerbating the situation is the lack of clarity around web traffic. Management has tightly guarded access to the site’s Chartbeat, which provides traffic data. The Daily Beast reported that only senior editors can see traffic data, which has sparked concerns that ad revenue is tanking.
Media insiders have flagged to The Post that the website has a sparse and bizarre smattering of ads from the likes of the American Petroleum Institute and Interactive Brokers.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
