The Messenger, the upstart digital news outlet that hired hundreds of journalists and vowed to upend the industry as a centrist publication, will shut down less than a year after its high-profile launch, the company said Wednesday.
The collapse of the outlet, founded by media entrepreneur Jimmy Finkelstein, marks one of the largest and swiftest failures of a media outlet in recent memory. The Messenger’s closure comes just eight months after its debut that was built on a strategy of generating gobs of internet traffic from social media platforms and search engines despite broader industry headwinds.
Staffers at the outlet learned of its shuttering on Wednesday from The New York Times, which broke the news of its demise, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
In a memo sent to staff Wednesday afternoon, Finkelstein said he had made the “painfully hard decision to shut down The Messenger, effective immediately.”
“Over the past few weeks, literally until earlier today, we exhausted every option available and have endeavored to raise sufficient capital to reach profitability,” he wrote, according to a copy of the memo obtained by CNN. “Unfortunately, we have been unable to do so, which is why we haven’t shared the news with you until now.”
Finkelstein said he was “personally devastated” by the decision and apologized to staff for the site’s collapse.
“The economic headwinds have left many media companies fighting for survival,” he said. “Unfortunately, as a new company, we encountered even more significant challenges than others and could not survive those headwinds.”
At launch, The Messenger hoped to hire some 550 journalists — it eventually hired 300 — and boasted it would eventually reach 100 million readers on a monthly basis, an ambitious target for a new publication.
But in the fall, it became apparent that The Messenger’s financial health was ailing. The outlet’s former president, Richard Beckman, reportedly told staff that The Messenger was “out of money.” Reports emerged earlier this month that the struggling news publisher was looking to raise some $20 million as it laid off two dozen staffers.
To raise capital, Finkelstein met with right-wing financiers, holding discussions at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. One such proposal offered $30 million in funding for a 51% stake in the company, which was valued at around $60 million. In essence, Finkelstein was willing to cede control of his outlet less than a year after launching in order to keep it afloat.
“I’m devastated we have ended like this, and I am sorry the last few weeks have been torturous,” Dan Wakeford, The Messenger’s editor in chief, told staff in an email Wednesday.
“The editorial team built a brand from scratch in a short amount of time and achieved our goal of creating a neutral news brand that fits perfectly into a middle lane, appealing to insiders and outsiders,” he said.
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