Upstart digital news outlet The Messenger shuts down
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, reports CNN.
CNN adds that 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.”
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