Top News:
Ben Smith / New York Times:
How the charm of Ozy's chief, Carlos Watson, helped persuade investors into putting millions toward a media dream before conducting sufficient due diligence — The story behind the story is about the elite investors who plowed millions into a media dream without much due diligence, persuaded by the charm of Ozy's head, Carlos Watson.
Discussion:
@craigsilverman, @craigsilverman, CNN, @benyt, @benyt, @aymanm, @amlwhere, @craigsilverman, @sonnybunch, @jodyavirgan, @craigsilverman, @rolandsmartin, @gentlemanstimes, @jessicalessin, @lpolgreen, @craigsilverman, @bendwalsh, @jduffyrice, @vivian, @davepell, @escarry, @reckless, @jeremymbarr, @craigsilverman, @jdesmondharris, @craigsilverman, @sharonwaxman, @geedee215, @jeremymbarr, @jswatz, @craigsilverman, @donlday, @chrisecrowley, @craigsilverman, @justinjm1, @akbarth3great, @mattwelch, @craigsilverman, @ccadelago, @craigsilverman, @annehelen, @jswatz, @craigsilverman, @daveweigel, @felixsalmon, @oliverdarcy and @sonnybunch
Discussion:
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: I worry that other people of color building media businesses are going to face even more scrutiny and skepticism because of Ozy's deceptions. And after years of covering ad fraud, I'm incensed that big brands still can't or won't take control of their digital spending.
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: The Ozy Media meltdown has a lot of lessons. As the reporter who caught them buying junk traffic in 2017, I'm biased. But I see it as a perfect, cautionary illustration of Paid versus Earned media. So: a 🧵 on why Ozy failed as a paid media company — and why it matters.
CNN: Facebook firestorm — Frances Haugen was Facebook's lead product manager on the civic misinformation team.
Ben Smith / @benyt: I also spoke to Carlos Watson, who concedes nothing, and argues that paid/preroll views are superior to people who choose to watch your content: “We did not want to simply be subject to the vagaries of the algorithms...” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Ben Smith / @benyt: Here are some slides from a deck, from this summer when Ozy was trying to raise money at a $450 million valuation https://twitter.com/...
Ayman / @aymanm: This is perhaps my favorite story of the week. And likely we have the perfect guest to talk about it... @benyt joins me to discuss his bombshell reporting and how that literally led to Ozy Media shutting down. https://twitter.com/...
Ann Marie Lipinski / @amlwhere: Two key reasons Ozy can happen again: 1. Investors who perform little analysis and “rely on gut instinct and herd-like validation from their peers” 2. Advertisers “who are ever in search of news without, well, news” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: Also, brands do completely bonkers shit with their money. In 2017 I gave JPMorgan a LOT of data and details to show how its sponson on Ozy was getting junk paid traffic. Yet here we are four years later and JPMorgan was still spending with Ozy. https://twitter.com/...
Sonny Bunch / @sonnybunch: Some personal news: I've been promoted to “Twitter wag.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jody Avirgan / @jodyavirgan: I was turned off by Ozy from the moment I first heard about it, not because I sniffed a scam but because of this — it just seemed so aggressively safe. https://twitter.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: So: it paid to place sponsored Ozy content in the LA Times and then quoted its own sponcon to create the impression it was getting good press. This thread has so many more examples like this https://twitter.com/...
@rolandsmartin: Doubling down on a damn lie. Advertisers gave millions to @ozy and their fraudulent numbers and totally ignore those of who have grown our business organically by not buying a penny of marketing. THAT is real audience growth https://twitter.com/...
Chris Chafin / @gentlemanstimes: everyone loves the ozy story because they're just **slightly** over the line that every other media company dances on every day https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin: Has not a more true phrase been uttered... “The whole Ozy episode seemed to confirm the widely held suspicion that venture capital and advertising may be the world's least rigorous industries.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Lydia Polgreen / @lpolgreen: I have spent a lot of time in the past week thinking about all the Black and brown owned media companies Ozy leapfrogged. https://twitter.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: Ozy's strategy has been to buy audience, influence and the trappings of success. It appears to have worked until money from investors started to dry up. Ozy's problem is that all its paid media never turned into earned media aka real audience success. So they had to keep buying.
Ben Walsh / @bendwalsh: if true, this is yet more gross mismanagement by Carlos Watson! https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Josie Duffy Rice / @jduffyrice: i'm glad to see other black media heads interviewed in this article, including the inimitable @laurenwilliams. but i wish it covered what this means for media going forward. it's near impossible to build a thriving media outlet, and it'll only get harder. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Vivian Schiller / @vivian: Ozy's promise was “diversity without the conflict.” Is such thing even possible? @benyt https://www.nytimes.com/...
Dave Pell / @davepell: If you're a sexual harasser, the last words you want to hear are: Roman Farrow is on the phone. If you're a phony media company, the last words you want to hear are: Ben Smith is on the phone. https://twitter.com/...
Eddie Scarry / @escarry: ," wrote Ben Smith, the former editor in chief of BuzzFeed. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Nilay Patel / @reckless: This is so funny - Tesla famously spends $0 on marketing and does not even have a comms person https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jeremy Barr / @jeremymbarr: A great thread from someone who was very early on this story https://twitter.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: Definitions: PAID media is advertising. Spend money to get an audience. In today's world that could be display ads, FB ads ppl click on, YouTube ads for your video. EARNED media is when people choose to watch/read/listen to your content or the media chooses to cover you.
@jdesmondharris: “[S]ome advertisers and venture capitalists are much more comfortable attaching themselves to media with lower stakes that is attached to lofty ideas, but not news that's going to move the needle or challenge the status quo,” said Lauren Williams https://www.nytimes.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: Let's move on. What has Ozy done since? It continued to pay for audience in a variety of formats. This pattern suggests Ozy's strategy of covering “the new and the next” wasn't building the kind of audience it was promising investors and advertisers.
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: “The classic demographic for Ozy was a retired female white teacher who used Ozy to stay young and stay woke and loved learning about the world from it,” the former employee said. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Vaxton P. Hartnabrig / @geedee215: This dude talks in press release copy — why didn't that automatically trip any alarm bells for Ozy's rich investors? Everything that he's saying, even now, lands as affable dissembling. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jeremy Barr / @jeremymbarr: “A strange feature of Ozy Media was that the content was all real, its journalism was real (albeit light) and the ad revenue appears to have been real, too. Nobody loves this stuff more than advertisers, who are ever in search of news without, well, news.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: But in this case Ozy was sourcing traffic from multiple extremely dubious sources, and the brands didn't know. It later told the brands that this traffic/content wasn't part of their deal. OK!
@donlday: Gosh why am I working so hard to get people to read our content when apparently just paying for eyeballs is superior. 🙄 https://twitter.com/...
Chris Crowley / @chrisecrowley: thinking about how Ozy investor Laurene Powell Jobs's Emerson Collective pulled funding for California Sunday Magazine, leading to its shut down last year... there was also the matter of the Atlantic laying off 20 percent of its staff... https://www.nytimes.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: Brands paid millions to sponsor content on Ozy. This reveals a lot about advertisers imho, and their inability to to accurately judge real from fake in the digital media ecosystem. Or their propensity to simply not care about the difference... https://www.axios.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Justin Miller / @justinjm1: The big legal question is whether Ozy's prolific deceit was used to hook investors who were subsequently harmed with the company going bust. If so, it's fraud. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Matt Welch / @mattwelch: The implications & patterns of this story present all kinds of avenues for consideration & exploration. https://twitter.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: Backgorund: In 2017 I revealed Ozy bought a bunch of junk web traffic and had sent it to sponsored content pages on its website. They PAID for an audience to view this stuff. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
Christopher Cadelago / @ccadelago: Carlos Watson, zooming with Ben Smith on Sunday to defend Ozy after its implosion, was joined by a new public relations adviser, the former Clinton aide Phil Singer. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: BUT in spite of all these obvious signs that the company was not connecting with an audience, Brands continued to spend money with Ozy. The one thing Ozy was good at was at selling itself and a vision. From the NYT tonight: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Anne Helen Petersen / @annehelen: everyone should name their newsletter that does valuable reporting something that sounds amazing when mentioned in a serious NYT article https://twitter.com/...
John Schwartz / @jswatz: “I look at the demands they made on me — my metrics, numbers,” he said of the advertising agencies. “Now I'm sitting there going, 'Y'all made me jump through all these hoops? It was that easy just to lie and make up this stuff?'” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: This matters because the money invested in Ozy and spent on campaigns with it could have been deployed elsewhere. It could have helped support mission-driven media that does the hard work of connecting with and serving a *real* audience.
Dave Weigel / @daveweigel: “After our conversation on Sunday, in which [Carlos Watson] was joined by a new public relations adviser, the former Clinton aide Phil Singer...” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Felix Salmon / @felixsalmon: “The low-conflict, low-news journalism that Ozy offered appears to have been a hard sell to readers and viewers. Ozy's content, however, was catnip to #brand managers in the consumer packaged goods market.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: “I am sympathetic to people like Mr. Watson and Ms. Holmes — strivers whose dreams apparently led them into deception,” @benyt writes. “If you've ever worked for and loved a new institution, you can imagine how hard it would be to let it fail.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
RELATED:
Ben Smith / New York Times:
Ozy Media says it is shutting down, after coming under scrutiny for its business practices in recent days — The digital media start-up had come under scrutiny for its business practices in recent days following articles in The Times. — Read in app
Discussion:
@hunterw, Media Voices, @shortformernie, @jayrosen_nyu, Look What You Made Me Do, So, What's the Big News ?, @karidotpeters, @moorehn, @hunterw, @pomeranian99, Gizmodo, @patrick_hruby, @om, @katie_robertson, CNBC, NPR, @danilic, @charukasturi, @charukasturi, @charukasturi, @charukasturi, @charukasturi, @charukasturi, @charukasturi, @charukasturi, @sharonwaxman, @sharonwaxman, @sharonwaxman, @sharonwaxman, @mmasnick, @clarajeffery, @rafat, @sharonwaxman, @danielpmalloy, Protocol, @jayrosen_nyu, @katie_robertson, @thekeenanwire, @maghielse, @byronyork, @nancyromm, @markyarm, @rachelmetz, @jeffjarvis, @kerrymflynn, @film_girl, @mikeorren, @petersterne, @jbenton, @petersterne, @alexweprin, @danprimack, @geedee215, @sarafischer, @edmundlee, @aaschapiro, @megan, @film_girl, @charlesarthur, @backlon, @timkawakami, @sarafischer, @harrymccracken, @bgrueskin, @glennf, @danprimack, @charlesarthur, @alexweprin, @ashleyfeinberg, @axios, @tweetermeyer, @sarafischer, @film_girl, @genepark, @megan, @ejacqui, @sharonwaxman, @danprimack, @jasonschreier, @marceelias, @jatayler, @daveweigel, @hayesbrown, @daveweigel, @juliacarriew, @sarafischer, @thedavidmurphy, @neontaster, @louoftheville, @jbillinson, @davidfolkenflik, @joshuatopolsky, @reckless, @mikeisaac, @nichcarlson, @benedictevans, @sree, @bigblackjacobin, @robtornoe, @wsteaks, @deray, @jbarro, @pamelacolloff, @neontaster, @timjhogan, @kromandavid, @danielnazer, @britnidwrites, @dougheye, @daveleeft, @mimms, @nycsouthpaw, @rebeccajarvis, @kairyssdal, @silviakillings, @jonathanvswan and Insider
Discussion:
Hunter Walker / @hunterw: I know a lot of folks are enjoying the coverage of Ozy's demise but it's important to remember that these dysfunctional media companies can really hurt well meaning employees.
Esther Kezia Thorpe / Media Voices: The Information Reporter Kaya Yurieff on covering the sprawling creator economy
Ernie Smith / @shortformernie: Ben Smith killed his first media outlet this week. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: Ozy Media's founder Monday: “We are strong and undeterred.” Four days later the company closed its doors. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Eugene S. Robinson / Look What You Made Me Do: OZY Rules: The House Negro Gets It in the End
Shailendra Singh Bisht / So, What's the Big News ?: Fake it Till You Make it? — Welcome to RPML, a newsletter about the Running Platform Marketing Life.
Kari O-Peters / @karidotpeters: @benyt I will truly miss reading about this media outlet I never knew existed until last week.
Spooky N. Gore / @moorehn: Also: Sophisticated investors are lied to and manipulated constantly. It's not unusual for grifters — large and small — to lie to them. I wrote a bit about those dynamics a few years back: https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Hunter Walker / @hunterw: I was wondering why there was a little rash of toxicity in my mentions and I see it is this bold argument for not stopping Twitter fun to think of people who lost their jobs. Thanks Brandy! https://twitter.com/...
Clive Thompson / @pomeranian99: Final paragraph in the @nytimes piece on Ozy Media collapsing and shutting down: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jody Serrano / Gizmodo: Ozy Media's Lies Made It Go Up in Flames
Patrick Hruby / @patrick_hruby: Subtext of this saga: Professional investors are supposed to be savvy, do due diligence, know the nuts and bolts of industries, etc—but in a world rigged for capital, none that really matters! https://www.nytimes.com/...
@om: “Ozy was named after “Ozymandias,” the famous sonnet by Shelley on the theme of the impermanence of all things and people — even the great pharaoh known by that name, whom the ancients tried to render immortal with a colossal statue, which crumbled.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Katie Robertson / @katie_robertson: Five days after @benyt's column on Ozy Media, the company is shutting down, its board says https://www.nytimes.com/...
David Folkenflik / NPR: Ozy shuts down after accusations of deceit, as high-profile backers peel away
Dan Ilic / @danilic: Wow. @benyt 's piece last week on @Ozy shut them down. Hey Ben, can you do a pice on @Australian next? thanks mate! https://www.nytimes.com/...
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: I resigned a day later, but offered to work until next week to help with editorial transitions, as many of our colleagues were — understandably — quitting. At the time, I didn't think the company would survive, but I did not expect it to sink within a week.
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: I'm devastated, angry and feel betrayed by the top leadership. They let a top quality bunch of journalists and a very special vision down in the most horrendous and indefensible way.
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: We could do that because we had the most wonderful, brilliant and diverse team possible — people I am so, so, so proud of calling colleagues and friends, people I've learned from, grown with, cried with. People who ANYONE would be privileged to work with.
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: Correction (pardon me, there might a few, I'm writing this while battling anger, frustration, exhaustion and much more): None of the senior managers knew of any of what had happened in Feb. until the news broke.
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: We were blindsided by @benyt's original NYT article last Sunday. The Board told Ben they were proud of how “Carlos' team” handled the Samir Rao/YouTube impersonation scandal. But “Carlos' team” — not even senior managers — knew of any of what had happened until the news broke.
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: But I'm as proud as ever of the fantastic journalism that our team did over so many years. We won awards, forced the biggest companies to change policies, innovated all the time and introduced our audience to every part of the world in rich, diverse ways that others ignored.
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: So this is how it ended — OZY, an idea/company many of us journalists have given our heart and soul to, our lives to, shut down without giving us a chance to save our contacts and work, without a chance to say goodbyes to everyone we've been in the trenches with. (THREAD) 👇
Charu Kasturi / @charukasturi: For the past two days, we weren't hearing anything from the top leadership, so those of us still there were preparing mentally for the worst. So where does all this leave someone who has worked 16 hour days (often 20 hrs) for 4+ years for an idea he believed in?
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: That was Monday. On Friday his demeanor was different: “Carlos was upset,” said one person who was present at the Friday meeting, in an interview with TheWrap. “He seemed beaten down by all of it. He seemed distracted.”
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: In a defiant interview with TheWrap shortly after the publication of the expose, Watson said he was the target of a “a bulls— ad hominem attack” in the New York Times because “Ozy's rising.”
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: It was a stunningly sudden end to a media company that only Sunday Watson told TheWrap had made $50 million in revenue in 2020 and turned a profit. A company that he claimed had been offered $250 million to be acquired by Buzzfeed in 2019.
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: “I know this isn't anything that any of us wanted,” Watson said, according to those present. “I'm very sorry to say that the board has voted, given everything that's happened, to suspend operations and to close Ozy as of today.”
Mike Masnick / @mmasnick: Whoa. A week ago I'd never heard of Ozy, and then I learned about the millions of dollars it had somehow raised... and now it's gone https://twitter.com/...
Clara Jeffery / @clarajeffery: Now THIS is a kicker https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@rafat: To blame VC money or that the digital media model is broken are wrong conclusions to draw out of Ozy debacle. Fraud is always the wrong model, irrespective.
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: Exclusive: “People on the call said Watson's crying appeared ‘fake’ and ‘theatrical,’ an individual with knowledge of the meeting told TheWrap.” A must-read on the 5-day-collapse of @OzyMedia by @antoinettesiu: https://www.thewrap.com/...
Daniel Malloy / @danielpmalloy: This needed to happen. But anyone looking for talented reporters and editors you've now got incredibly strong ones on the market: @CharuKasturi @tracymoran @bartlettkate @EromoEgbejule and many more https://twitter.com/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: “When the end came, it came swiftly, five days after The New York Times published an article that raised questions about the company and its leadership team.” https://www.nytimes.com/... The board — which failed in its oversight duties — said today, “we are closing Ozy's doors.”
Katie Robertson / @katie_robertson: The full story on the swift collapse this week of Ozy Media, from @benyt and me https://www.nytimes.com/...
Edward Keenan / @thekeenanwire: As they say where I'm from: Ben Smith Gets Action... https://twitter.com/...
Ross Maghielse / @maghielse: If even 25% of the “investment” money that continuously pours into random digital media companies went toward new organizations with an actual sustainable vision but lack of funds to achieve it, we'd live in a smarter world AND some people would be richer. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Byron York / @byronyork: House of cards. It took five days from @benyt piece to the total collapse of Ozy Media. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Nancy Rommelmann / @nancyromm: And the denouement (for now!), Ozy announcing they're out. Great work by @benyt. Also, are we laying bets on how long before Carlos Watson starts his new venture? https://www.nytimes.com/...
Mark Yarm / @markyarm: If you're an Ozy staffer who just lost your job, please hmu re the possibility of freelancing for @inputmag. DMs open; email in bio. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Rachel Metz / @rachelmetz: can u imagine what would have unfolded if it had lasted through next week? https://www.cnn.com/...
Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis: That was quick. Don't mess with @benyt. CNN: Ozy Media is shutting down after a week of scrutiny into its business. https://www.cnn.com/... via @GoogleNews
@kerrymflynn: Ozy staffers were called into a team meeting Friday shortly after 5pm ET where CEO Carlos Watson told them the company would be shutting down Here's some of what he said: https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: @edmundlee Absolutely. It was clearly a house of cards waiting to collapse but for it to be THIS fast indicates they also probably lied about how much money they raised.
Mike Orren / @mikeorren: Suggests to me that the (excellent) reporting on the scam this week only scratched the surface of how big a wreck this was. https://twitter.com/...
Peter Sterne / @petersterne: @edmundlee The reason so many reporters dug into Ozy, and the reason they were able to publish articles about it so soon after Ben's initial column, is because the whole enterprise was a house of cards. There was hardly anything that could be salvaged.
Joshua Benton / @jbenton: Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed https://www.nytimes.com/...
Peter Sterne / @petersterne: @edmundlee I think it was all the follow-ups. Ozy probably could have survived Ben's column. But within days, journalists from a wide variety of publications had uncovered serious issues related to everything from a toxic work environment to fake TV development deals and digital ad fraud.
Alex Weprin / @alexweprin: @petersterne @edmundlee Not sure I agree. Through it all, the most damning thing IMO was the impersonation of the YouTube exec. Potentially criminal! Eventually it would have come back to haunt them.
Dan Primack / @danprimack: Really do feel awful for these Ozy employees. One week ago, they had jobs and the belief that their stock options could eventually have value. Many of those options were fully vested. Today, that's all gone.
Vaxton P. Hartnabrig / @geedee215: no one will ever convince me that Ozy was not just Carlos Watson frantically running from landline to landline switching identities like the climax of Mrs. Doubtfire
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: Flagging again that ~75 people worked at Ozy. I've been on the phone w lots of them. They're reading all of the stories & tweets. This is very hard for them. A lot of them did great work. It's unfair to say Ozy was a “sham.” The correct framing is that it was woefully mismanaged. https://twitter.com/...
Edmund Lee / @edmundlee: took 6 days ... the fastest media clock i've ever seen https://twitter.com/...
Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro: Would be interesting to learn more about what happened with the deals Carlos Watson worked on while he was global head of education investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
Megan McCarthy / @megan: If Ozy was about more than just promoting its founder, then it could probably have ridden this out further. But it just seems like every example of their latest work was centering Carlos Watson, the brand, instead of Ozy, the brand. https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: @sree @benyt Honestly, it's better they get out now while they can leverage it into a good story/opportunity than letting it languish Mic/Vocativ or whatever style. Plus, Ozy had cut salaries 20%. Always sorry to see people lose jobs but in this case, it's better it be quick than dragged out
Charles Arthur / @charlesarthur: It is so fabulous that they called themselves “Ozy” after Ozymandias, the poem, and when they were told about its meaning they insisted it was about being humble. “round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away” https://twitter.com/...
Tim Kawakami / @timkawakami: Even in a high-velocity media landscape, this has been stunning to watch. https://twitter.com/...
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: A few things we learned today: — Execs told staff about Series D raise at this summer, but never specified from who or how much — Unclear whether Samir Rao actually took time off in February after the incident. Employees say if he did, they didn't notice. https://www.axios.com/...
Harry McCracken / @harrymccracken: For all the travails we know about—and the ones we don't know about yet—Ozy employed some talented journalists who did good work. https://twitter.com/...
Bill Grueskin / @bgrueskin: Wait, Ozy has the staff of a medium-sized metro paper? https://twitter.com/...
Glenn Fleishman / @glennf: Ozy come, Ozy go.
Dan Primack / @danprimack: Ozy Media has made more consequential decisions so far this week than has Congress.
Charles Arthur / @charlesarthur: HAAAAAA. I thought it could take four weeks in this morning's @theoverspill. Does that make me too optimistic, or pessimistic? https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Alex Weprin / @alexweprin: Let the record show that the poem Ozymandias ends with this line: “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: this is still the funniest part to me https://fortune.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@axios: Ozy told Axios earlier this year that it had 75 full-time employees, all of whom now seem to be out of a job. Go deeper: https://www.axios.com/... https://twitter.com/...
E.W. Niedermeyer / @tweetermeyer: Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level snark stretches far away https://twitter.com/...
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: It's unclear what happens to Ozy's assets, including a Series D funding round that CEO Carlos Watson told employees was raised earlier this year. https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: Has a NYT columnist ever caused the shutdown of a company in ~5 days before? Ben is the GOAT. https://twitter.com/...
Gene Park / @genepark: honestly I feel for the people who got tricked into working there. no surprise, I'm larger than the @ozy twitter account, but an audience editor was still posting thru today. can't imagine what this day is like. I'm genuinely sorry and I hope you can shelter somewhere else https://twitter.com/...
Megan McCarthy / @megan: So @benyt who are you writing about next week?
@ejacqui: The Ozy story had so many different plot points in the last week. It's been a riveting ride if you put aside the whole “everybody loses their jobs” part.
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: I said it before, I'll say it again. DO NOT MESS with @bensmith. Can't be bought, bullied or fooled. Five days ago Ozy Media was a fully functioning media company. https://twitter.com/...
Dan Primack / @danprimack: (even Theranos stuck around for several months)
Jason Schreier / @jasonschreier: A bunch of reporters are losing their jobs because clueless grifter management inflated stats and scammed investors... today, Ozy truly became a digital media company
Marc E. Elias / @marceelias: Am I the only person on Twitter who had never heard of Ozy Media before this week?
@jatayler: It'll never not be funny that Ozy named itself after Shelley's Ozymandias based on a total misread of the poem https://twitter.com/...
Dave Weigel / @daveweigel: The feeling I get from reading @benyt's Ozy stories is the feeling the rest of you must be getting from “Ted Lasso.”
Dave Weigel / @daveweigel: Hands up if you were rooting for Ozy to go down as soon as they put out that “he was doing fraud for mental health reasons, how dare you criticize him” statement.
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: one thing that I love about the ozy thing is that media people have either never heard of it before this week or have been quietly filing away evidence of its apparently obvious fraud for years and there is no middle ground
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: Ozy Media is shutting down, amid fraud allegations Ozy told Axios earlier this year that it had 75 full-time employees, all of whom now seem to be out of a job. https://www.axios.com/...
@neontaster: Ozy Media is basically the reverse Fyre Festival. The latter tried to swindle regular people by pretending they had lots of rich people on board, and the former tried to swindle rich people by pretending they had lots of regular people on board.
Lou Robinson / @louoftheville: I'm seeing a thousand tweets about Ozy media shutting down and I have no idea what it is/was and I guess I'll never know.
Josh Billinson / @jbillinson: Maybe they should've stuck with the conventional interpretation of the poem https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik: That statement from Ozy board - which, according to a source with knowledge, consists solely of Ozy CEO & Co-founder Carlos Watson and of Silicon Valley investor Michael Moe.
Joshua Topolsky / @joshuatopolsky: Life comes at you fast https://www.nytimes.com/...
Nilay Patel / @reckless: There's a YouTube traffic botfarm operator there that's like, damn there goes our Q4 https://twitter.com/...
Rat King / @mikeisaac: holy shit. notes app screen shot to shut down a company. not even a period at the end of the sentence https://twitter.com/...
Nicholas Carlson / @nichcarlson: And long live @benyt https://twitter.com/...
Benedict Evans / @benedictevans: Looking at Ozy this week reminded me a bit of looking at restaurants in Vegas. They know all the signals that say ‘good restaurant’ and they built that, and the restaurants look great, but the actual food is terrible. Ozy *looks* like a pretty good site, but... https://twitter.com/...
Sree Sreenivasan / @sree: Five days after @benyt's exposé and a day after his second piece. While Carlos Watson and Samir Rao should be punished for what they did, I feel bad for the innocent journos and others who worked there. Sigh. https://twitter.com/...
Edward Ongweso Jr / @bigblackjacobin: ok now let's hear about those exit packages who's getting a golden parachute and who's getting a lead one https://twitter.com/...
Rob Tornoe / @robtornoe: I would say that @benyt killed Ozy, but I'm not convinced it existed in the first place. Just.. wow. https://twitter.com/...
Will Steakin / @wsteaks: .@benyt's first Ozy story was on Sunday... less than a week later: https://twitter.com/...
Pamela Colloff / @pamelacolloff: This is the journalism dream: drop an explosive story at the beginning of the week, achieve 100% impact by Friday, take the weekend off. https://twitter.com/...
Tim Hogan / @timjhogan: They are shuttering an outlet with a three sentence statement. My god. https://twitter.com/...
David Kroman / @kromandavid: Not my favorite news outlet Ozy, which I definitely read even once https://twitter.com/...
Daniel Nazer / @danielnazer: Theranos clung to life for almost three years after Carreyrou broke the story. Ozy lasted five days. https://twitter.com/...
Britni Danielle / @britnidwrites: This escalated quickly. Ozy's CEO went from talking about their strength, to being ousted, now this. https://twitter.com/...
Doug Heye / @dougheye: The speed in which this happened, especially given their funding, is unprecedented. There were Ozy posters on H St NE in DC last week. May be a coincidence, but they were gone yesterday. https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Mimms / @mimms: Wow. Thoughts with the journalists at Ozy who had nothing to do with any of this. https://twitter.com/...
Rebecca Jarvis / @rebeccajarvis: Which is sadly how it always seems to go in these instances https://twitter.com/...
Kai Ryssdal / @kairyssdal: To that point, this great thread from @espiers https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Silvia Killingsworth / @silviakillings: Like these people, who were pressured to take stock options instead of pay raises https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jonathan Swan / @jonathanvswan: Need more Ozy content. 💉
David Folkenflik / NPR:
Ozy CEO Carlos Watson resigns as a corporate director of NPR, just before the board's governance committee meeting to weigh his future with NPR — Carlos Watson resigned as a corporate director of NPR on Friday after the spectacular public meltdown of the digital media company that he leads and co-founded.
Discussion:
Mediaite, @saramorrison, @johnqbarrett, @coopintn, @jrosenbaum, @nancyromm, @heynottheface, @jeremymbarr, @ziadramley, @nmcalone, @bybrianbyrne, @aprjoy, @benyt, @stphnfwlr, @brandyljensen, @saraashleyo, @gingergibson, @hunterw, @hunterw, @williamturton, @hunterw, @lwoodhouse, @lwoodhouse, @ckrewson, @ddayen, @mikeisaac, @genepark, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik and @davidfolkenflik
Discussion:
Ken Meyer / Mediaite: ‘I Was Shocked by How Fast It Happened’: NY Times' Ben Smith Reacts to Ozy Media's Collapse Days After His Exposé
Sara Morrison / @saramorrison: I hope people don't think that Ozy is the only outlet that does this to writers. Many legitimate ones do, too! You send them 25 pitches and you never hear from them again. https://twitter.com/...
John Q. Barrett / @johnqbarrett: Great reporting. Ponzi & Madoff come to mind. Who are — were — Ozy Media's lawyers? Have they withdrawn representations that they must have transmitted, and maybe made themselves, to media companies, lenders, prospective investors, etc.? @benyt @carloswatson @BradBessey https://twitter.com/...
Kristina Gordon / @coopintn: I knew Ozy was bad news from the beginning when they did an interview with me about forgiveness after infidelity and then slapped a headline on it that read: How to Cheat and Get Away With It. https://twitter.com/...
Jason Rosenbaum / @jrosenbaum: This is such a weird story. I watch a lot of popular channels on YouTube (mainly non political things about music, the NBA and professional wrestling) and I've never heard of Ozy until this week. https://twitter.com/...
Nancy Rommelmann / @nancyromm: The “false claim” in the headline is a euphemism; the Ozy execs flat-out lied and, when confronted, brushed it off like so much nuthin'. How long and how much had they been getting away with? And that batshit Goldman Sachs phone call? Amazing! https://www.nytimes.com/...
John S. Nash / @heynottheface: “This was a company that didn't have an audience & boasted of a massive audience & valuing itself at hundreds of millions of dollars. These pop up in all sorts of industries. It does expose how little attention so-called sophisticated investors often pay” https://mediaite.com/a/jxzed
Jeremy Barr / @jeremymbarr: Credit to Ben Smith, who mixes media commentary and humor by saying on Reliable Sources that Ozy Media “had a real problem building a kind of non-billionaire audience.” https://www.mediaite.com/...
Ziad Ramley / @ziadramley: Ben has started an avalanche of reporting on Ozy and his latest story is just as shocking as the first https://twitter.com/...
Nathan McAlone / @nmcalone: “In 2017 and 2018, Watson cited the number of people who might have been in Central Park on the days of the festivals, regardless of whether or not they attended, the former employee said.”: https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
Brian Patrick Byrne / @bybrianbyrne: A lesson in why engagement, and not follower count, is what matters: https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
April Joyner / @aprjoy: @GeeDee215 It did. I had a brief stint in Mountain View as a freelancer. Wouldn't have thought I'd be co-bylining this years later https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
Ben Smith / @benyt: Ozy's board announces it is “closing Ozy's doors”
Stephen Fowler / @stphnfwlr: This Ozy story just keeps getting wilder and wilder!!! As someone who is both a millennial and incredibly online, it's still so puzzling to me that I've never heard of the supposed millennial-focused online outlet... https://www.npr.org/...
Brandy Jensen / @brandyljensen: i think most of those employees are pretty okay with everyone dunking on the bosses who exploited them https://twitter.com/...
Sara Ashley O'Brien / @saraashleyo: this. read @kerrymflynn's Ozy work culture story: https://www.cnn.com/... a lot of ppl end up being collateral damage, for lack of a better word. they buy into a charismatic leader w/ a lofty mission and don't want to let them down — even at the risk of their own health https://twitter.com/...
Ginger Gibson / @gingergibson: Ozy recruited good journalists, some who aren't in journalism anymore because of them. https://twitter.com/...
Hunter Walker / @hunterw: .@benyt's second story gets to this a bit. Big money investors and the execs who bilk them aren't at the same level of risk of employees who waste time and energy at dysfunctional outlets. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Hunter Walker / @hunterw: I have dealt with exploitative and grifty places at least three times in my life. It wasn't as ridiculous or absurd as Ozy necessarily but it makes me cognizant people are really affected by this.
William Turton / @williamturton: @hunterw Speaking as someone who has worked at a couple dysfunctional media companies, I have no issue enjoying the demise of the charlatans
Hunter Walker / @hunterw: @WilliamTurton It's the demise of more than that though William. It's not something to enjoy.
Leighton Woodhouse / @lwoodhouse: This guy is truly the Elizabeth Holmes of media.
Leighton Woodhouse / @lwoodhouse: LOL Carlos Watson was on NPR's board? https://www.npr.org/...
Chris Krewson / @ckrewson: Yeah. https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
David Dayen / @ddayen: Statement from NPR Board chair LaFontaine Oliver: “Earlier today, [OZY CEO] Carlos Watson submitted his resignation from the NPR Board of Directors. I have accepted his resignation on behalf of the Board. Mr. Watson's resignation is effective as of today.”
Rat King / @mikeisaac: watson has somehow been involved in every major media entity for years without anyone going “huh wha?” and it is extremely funny to watch everyone hit eject at the same time https://twitter.com/...
Gene Park / @genepark: media executives not savvy or smart enough to recognize very-obvious grifters explains everything about everything imo https://twitter.com/...
David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik: Starting with NYT's story Sunday night, Watson and his media company, Ozy, have been accused of misleading the public, advertisers & investors about the performance of the buzz-hungry digital outlet. Watson called NYT story a hit job. Each day has brought new allegations.
David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik: NEWS: Ozy CEO & co-founder Carlos Watson has resigned from NPR's board of directors after a week of scandal. His resignation, in a letter to NPR's board chairman, arrived shortly before NPR's governance committee was set to meet to determine his status. https://www.npr.org/...
David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik: “I've always interpreted it as, ‘Think big but be humble’,” Watson once told NPR, alluding to the poem that inspired Ozy's name. “Our ambition is to help people see more and be more, introduce them to the new and the next, but make sure... they're a little bit humble about it.”
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Ozy inflated its numbers by buying most of its social media following and viewership for some shows, then used the numbers in pitches to TV networks — The downfall of Ozy Media and its charismatic founder Carlos Watson will go down as one of the most sudden media collapses of all time.
Discussion:
@sarafischer, @dabeard, @martinsfp, @emilybell, @craigsilverman, @balakrishnanr, @axios, @axios, @axios, @axios, @axios, @jayrosen_nyu, @sarafischer, @nick4iezos, @ursulaperano, @hamiltonnolan, @danprimack, @robertwolf32 and @lachlan
Discussion:
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: Re: OZY — One source told Axios that more than 95% of viewership for “The Carlos Watson Show” was paid —2 sources said execs included social media interactions in overall reach metrics —Email list was massive, but many emails obtained via dubious practices https://www.axios.com/...
Martin Sfp Bryant / @martinsfp: “One source said that more than 95% of viewership for ‘The Carlos Watson Show’ was paid.” “Two sources said the company would often include social media interactions in its overall reach metrics.” 😳 https://www.axios.com/...
Emily Bell / @emilybell: OZY - the exact opposite of standing up to scrutiny. @benyt peeled back the lid of the can.....worms everywhere. It does make one think though that if internal knowledge of all these practices were so prevalent, why it took so long https://twitter.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: Axios reported that it paid for its social media following, and used these follower counts to try and impress investors and others. https://www.axios.com/... https://twitter.com/...
R. Balakrishnan / @balakrishnanr: Catch up on something fun. A nice structured story ... Ozy Media Ozy Built a TV Show on a False Claim, Says Its Former Producer https://www.nytimes.com/...
@axios: Some employees knew these things were happening and protested. Many assumed it was happening but were not directly involved so they didn't speak up. https://www.axios.com/...
@axios: Ozy Media was built on years of lies that together created a false narrative about its business, financials and culture, according to documents obtained by Axios, and dozens of conversations with former employees, investors, business partners and advisers. https://www.axios.com/...
@axios: 🧵: The story of Ozy became so viral so fast because it highlighted the worst parts of every industry in America: naive investors, digital media outlets faking their numbers and over-zealous startup founders toeing the line between dishonesty and delusion. https://www.axios.com/...
@axios: As of Friday evening, only two people remained on Ozy's Board: CEO Carlos Watson and Michael Moe, a venture capitalist. https://www.axios.com/...
@axios: • One source said that more than 95% of viewership for “The Carlos Watson Show” was paid • Another said the company bought most of its social media following • Two sources said execs included social media interactions in overall reach metrics https://www.axios.com/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: “Ozy Media was built on years of lies that together created a woefully false narrative about its business, financials and culture...” https://www.axios.com/... It's hard to overstate how little was there.
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: NEW: The revenue figures Carlos Watson shared with Axios in Jan 2021 align with what he told investors, recruits, board members and third-party vendors. Given all of the deception around the company's numbers (details below) everything is being questioned. https://www.axios.com/...
@nick4iezos: @AvaKofman Carlos's lack of care about valuing others' time is well described in this piece, and it trickled down to their absurd hiring process: https://www.entrepreneur.com/ ...
Ursula Perano / @ursulaperano: I talked to OZY about a job in 2020 and instead of a writing test they asked me to freelance a piece. When I said I couldn't freelance because of my then-job's contract, they suggested I write under a pseudonym, which seemed sketch (I wrote nothing) https://twitter.com/...
Hamilton Nolan / @hamiltonnolan: Media companies are funded in large part by rich people who spend five minutes thinking about “what journalism needs” and come up with stuff like “are conservatives in Arkansas teaming up with Europeans?” and then completely lose interest. So I see why Ozy raised millions https://twitter.com/...
Dan Primack / @danprimack: Ozy Media's Samir Rao has deleted/wiped his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Axios:
Axel Springer says it gave up its Ozy board seat after investing $300K in its Series C in 2019, but Ozy listed Axel's rep as a director in a July 2021 filing — Good people quit good jobs to join Ozy Media. They believed in its mission, its leadership and its potential for wealth creation.
Discussion:
Ben Smith / @benyt: Ozy chairman Marc Lasry just resigned: “I believe that going forward Ozy requires experience in areas like crisis management and investigations, where I do not have particular expertise.”
Brian McCullough / @brianmcc: No one needs to hear this from me, but for 4 years I have never, never once, linked to an Ozy story. And all I do every day is parse the zeitgeist! Which... you know... Means something... https://nymag.com/...
@anjalikumar: This whole Ozy thing is comical insanity. I feel like a lot of the problems there happen at other places too and somehow go unscrutinized...I wonder why. Serious question. https://nymag.com/...
Michael Eaves / @michaeleaves: Admittedly, I've been late to this story and the mere fact that #Ozy even existed, but this whole thing is CRAZY! Like.. how, Sway?? https://nymag.com/...
Jeff Wise / @manvbrain: Well, @ozy is done. What's remarkable isn't just how long Carlos Watson's brazen shenangians went on for, but how much suffering he wreaked on the journalists who tried to worked hard to turn his flawed vision into reality. I talked to former staffers: https://nymag.com/...
Adam Taylor / @mradamtaylor: “The reason those stories weren't reported by the big outfits is that they weren't that significant ... You have to be a real social-justice trooper to read article after article about, you know, the fight for women's rights in some province in Nigeria.” 😕 https://nymag.com/...
Francine McKenna / @retheauditors: @danprimack “They believed in its... potential for wealth creation.” That's not a reason for a journalist to join a news organization. Maybe they should have done more due diligence. https://twitter.com/...
David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik: Last night I asked- who's on the Ozy board? We still don't know. Axios's @sarafischer did some more sleuthing this AM... finding others are not https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@nick4iezos: This is a fairly interesting piece in that it's one of just a few to go deep into all the hard, good work the team put in while facing extreme obstacles and conditions every single day https://nymag.com/...
Errol Louis / @errollouis: “Even as Watson was running around telling advertisers and investors that Ozy had tens of millions of readers, staffers knew the truth.” https://nymag.com/... via @intelligencer
Justin Miller / @justinjm1: When @Eugene_Robinson was late to work once, Carlos Watson docked from his pay $5,000 https://nymag.com/...
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: NEW w @danprimack: — Axel Springer, an early Ozy investor, tells Axios that it gave up voting rights/board seat after only investing $300k in Series C, but Ozy continued to list Axel's rep as an active director in a July 2021 filing w the state of Florida https://www.axios.com/...
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: 1/2 NEW, OZY: Axel Springer says person who was attending board mtgs in observing capacity for Axel was Jens Müffelmann, but “In light of current developments and accusations against Ozy, he has decided and informed the CEO of Ozy yesterday that he steps down from this function”
The Guardian:
ICIJ, The Guardian, BBC, Le Monde, and WaPo publish the Pandora papers, a trove of 11.9M files from companies used to set up offshore accounts by the wealthy — Millions of documents reveal offshore deals and assets of more than 100 billionaires, 30 world leaders and 300 public officials
Discussion:
Washington Post, ICIJ, BBC, The Indian Express, Washington Post, Insider, ICIJ, YouTube, Poynter, Al Jazeera, @icijorg, @carolecadwalla, @benjaminnorton, @imrankhanpti, @snowden, @krystalball, @paullewis, @paullewis, @paullewis, CP24, @washingtonpost, @maxblumenthal, Al Jazeera, BBC, The Deep Dive Newsletter, The Guardian, Rehacked Newsletter, NPR, New York Magazine, Mother Jones, @icijorg, @paullewis, @icijorg, Slate, @paullewis, @icijorg, Rolling Stone, New York Times, @icijorg, digitaljournal.com and Blue Potion
Discussion:
ICIJ: The largest investigation in journalism history exposes a shadow financial system that benefits the world's most rich and powerful. Read more.
P Vaidyanathan Iyer / The Indian Express: Explained: Why do the Pandora Papers matter?
Tom Porter / Insider: Russian state news outlets covered the Pandora Papers, but made no mention of the involvement of Putin's inner circle
Emilia Díaz-Struck / ICIJ: Pandora Papers: An offshore data tsunami
Icij / @icijorg: NEW: #PandoraPapers reveals the inner workings of a shadow economy that benefits the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else. Brought to you by ICIJ and 600+ journalists, the largest collaboration in journalism history. 🧵 https://www.youtube.com/...
Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla: Kudos & congrats to the 600 journalists from around world who have investigated & reported out this HUGE new leak. Politicians & PMs in the frame but the real villain here is the entire offshore system. And esp London's leading role #PandoraPapers https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Ben Norton / @benjaminnorton: What a coincidence that there are zero US politicians included in the “Pandora Papers” list of offshore bank accounts. I guess they're all pure and free from corruption! I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that the so-called “leak” was likely a hack by US spy agencies https://twitter.com/...
Imran Khan / @imrankhanpti: We welcome the Pandora Papers exposing the ill-gotten wealth of elites, accumulated through tax evasion & corruption & laundered out to financial “havens”. The UN SG's Panel FACTI calculated a staggering $7 trillion in stolen assets parked in largely offshore tax havens.
Edward Snowden / @snowden: The humorous side of this very serious story is that even after two apocalyptic offshore finance/law firm leaks, those industries are still compiling vast databases of ruin, and still secure them with a Post-It Note marked “do not leak.” Hats off to the source! #PandoraPapers
Krystal Ball / @krystalball: The richest Americans (Bezos, Musk, Gates) don't appear in the Pandora Papers leak because: “the uber-rich in the United States tend to pay such low tax rates that they have less incentive to seek offshore havens.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Paul Lewis / @paullewis: We hear that people in Jordan are blocked from reading the @ICIJ's story about their King's secret property empire. They can read all about it here instead. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Paul Lewis / @paullewis: Hugely proud of the Guardian's contribution to this project. Too many people to mention, not least the subs, designers, lawyers, picture researchers, audio producers, videographers, data graphics illustrators and editors who are so essential for these projects.
Paul Lewis / @paullewis: This isn't a story any single government can censor. It is the largest journalistic collaboration in history. More than 600 journalists in over 100 countries. Here's everything you need to know about the Pandora papers. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
CP24: Global elites using shell companies and trusts to hide money from tax authorities: Pandora Papers leak
@washingtonpost: A massive trove of private financial records shared with The Washington Post exposes vast reaches of the secretive offshore system used to hide billions of dollars from tax authorities, creditors, criminal investigators and citizens around the world. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Max Blumenthal / @maxblumenthal: Pandora Papers look like another US intel leak/hack-and-dump, complete with Luke Harding listed on the Guardian reporting team https://twitter.com/...
Africa Uncensored / The Deep Dive Newsletter: WATCH OUR “PANDORA PAPERS” DOCUMENTARY
Dainius / Rehacked Newsletter: ReHacked #87: Supply chain disruptions, implantable bioartificial kidney, Opel to shut German plant until 2022 due to chip shortage and more
Joe Hernandez / NPR: What the ‘Pandora Papers’ show about how the powerful hide money from public view
Hannah Levintova / Mother Jones: Largest-Ever Leak of Offshore Files Reveals the Secret Finances of Hundreds of Billionaires and World Leaders
Icij / @icijorg: The #PandoraPapers unmask the covert owners of offshore companies, incognito bank accounts, private jets, yachts, mansions and famous artwork — providing more information than what's usually available to law enforcement and cash-strapped governments. https://www.icij.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Paul Lewis / @paullewis: Data was leaked to the ICIJ, which shared access with the Guardian, BBC, Washington Post and others. Phenomenal teamwork that lasted - on and off - over 18 months. https://www.icij.org/...
Icij / @icijorg: • 35 current and former world leaders • 330+ politicians and public officials • A global list of fugitives, con artists and murderers. We've uncovered their financial secrets in the #PandoraPapers: The biggest journalism partnership in history. https://www.icij.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Daniel Politi / Slate: Pandora Papers: Massive Leak Exposes Offshore Dealings of 35 World Leaders, Hundreds of Public Figures
Paul Lewis / @paullewis: The offshore secrets of more than 35 current and former presidents revealed in a massive leak. This is one of the most exhausting, complex and potentially explosive investigations I've ever worked on. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Icij / @icijorg: The #PandoraPapers contain 12M documents from 14 service providers. Our investigation uncovers the financial secrets of 35 current and former world leaders, 330+ politicians and public officials, and a global list of fugitives, con artists and murderers. https://www.icij.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Peter Wade / Rolling Stone: Massive Document Leak Reveals How Global Political Leaders Hide Their Riches
Patrick Kingsley / New York Times: Jordan's King Among Leaders Accused of Amassing Secret Property Empire
Icij / @icijorg: • More than 11.9M confidential files • More than 600 journalists • 150 news outlets • 2 years of reporting The #PandoraPapers offer insights into why governments and global organizations have made little headway in ending offshore financial abuses. https://www.icij.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube TV and NBCUniversal renew their carriage deal; YouTube TV's price will remain the same and Peacock Premium will not be bundled with the service — YouTube TV said the price of the internet-television package will remain the same. In reaching the carriage renewal …
Discussion:
@youtubetv, Light Reading, @lukebk, @variety, @xpangler, Ars Technica, MediaPost, Droid Life, The Verge, Deadline and Gizmodo
Discussion:
YouTube TV / @youtubetv: We're thrilled to share that we have now reached an agreement with NBCUniversal. You'll continue to have access to 85+ channels, including all NBCU channels, their Regional Sports Networks, and your local NBC station, with no change to our current monthly price.
Jeff Baumgartner / Light Reading: NBCU, YouTube TV strike new deal
@variety: YouTube TV customers will continue to get NBCUniversal's suite of cable channels and local NBC stations after Google and NBCU announced an official agreement Saturday https://variety.com/...
Todd Spangler / @xpangler: NBCU and YouTube Clinch New Agreement, No Price Increase for TV Streaming Service https://variety.com/... via @variety
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: YouTube TV and NBC avoid blackout for now but are still at odds in negotiations
Dade Hayes / Deadline: NBCUniversal And YouTube TV Reach Carriage Deal, Avoid Blackout; NBCU Says It Felt “Obligated” To Warn Viewers - Update
Brianna Provenzano / Gizmodo: YouTube TV and NBCUniversal Have Agreed to Make Nice—for Now
RELATED:
Angela Watercutter / Wired:
The dustup between YouTube TV and NBCUniversal serves as a harbinger that bundling and contract disputes for streaming could be similar to cable TV disputes
Discussion:
Sports Media Watch, Gizmodo, The Streamable, @wiredculture, @wired, @davidpoland and @jenlucpiquant
Discussion:
Alyse Stanley / Gizmodo: YouTube TV and NBCUniversal Have Kissed And Made Up
Jason Gurwin / The Streamable: OFFICIAL: YouTube TV and NBCU Agree to New Deal, Channels to Remain With No Change in Monthly Price
@wiredculture: Streaming was supposed to help people cut the cord, but it mostly just replaced it. https://www.wired.com/...
@wired: If you're a YouTube TV user and like Sunday Night Football, chances are you've spent the past few days wondering whether you'll be able to stream this weekend's game. https://www.wired.com/...
Dan Froomkin / Press Watch:
NYT's Congressional coverage once again overhyped conflict among Democrats and reached subjective, unsupported conclusions — Sometimes, the political reporters at the New York Times really tip their hands. — Today is such a day. — The House Democratic leadership on Thursday blew …
Discussion:
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker: The Democratic Civil War Has a Winner: Donald Trump
Josh Marshall / @joshtpm: Today's Times account of yesterday's events is a distillation of the wired-for-Republicans/Meet The Press insider culture which still shapes news in DC https://talkingpointsmemo.com/ ... via @TPM
James Gleick / @jamesgleick: I don't know how my former employer can be so devastatingly wrong about Washington politics when, if they read @joshtpm, they could get a clear understanding. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Cooper / @ryanlcooper: “Here though is an article which is so comically wrong in its basic understanding of events that I really do have to wonder what's wrong with the publication's DC bureau.” https://talkingpointsmemo.com/ ...
Joe Sudbay / @joesudbay: as always, read @froomkin —> New York Times reporters humiliate themselves again “What the Times story revealed was the reporters' triumphalist delight in anything that can be characterized as a failure by progressives.” https://presswatchers.org/... via @froomkin
Dan Froomkin / @froomkin: This duo is up to tricks again today. I wrote about them yesterday. Does no one edit them? https://twitter.com/...
Dan Froomkin / @froomkin: Congress is a Rorschach test for political reporters, producing varied interpretations that reveal their own emotional functioning. The Times story revealed triumphalist delight in anything that can be characterized as a failure by progressives https://presswatchers.org/...
Eric Boehlert / @ericboehlert: it's gone from “feud” to “civil war”!! DC press has been a joke this week;https://www.newyorker.com/ ...
David Sirota / @davidsirota: What's interesting about this tweet is that it is from a New York Times “reporter” — he's issuing an edict that progressives must stand down, declaring that things will not happen. This isn't reporting — this is corporate advocacy. https://twitter.com/...
Dan Froomkin / @froomkin: An overwrought, smarmy and inaccurate lead Times story by @jonathanweisman and @ESCochrane described a sky-is-falling scenario for Democrats brought about by a “liberal revolt” that amounted to a “humiliating blow” for Biden. https://presswatchers.org/...
@pareene: really been something to see so much of the press still go with the usual “progressive tantrum is dooming the Democratic agenda” framing but I think the actual answer here is they now incredibly think of Biden as one of the extremists stopping Gottheimer from Being Reasonable https://twitter.com/...
Greg Sargent / @theplumlinegs: Now, we don't know if the bills will survive. The whole house of cards very well may collapse. But the idea that this postponement is itself the harbinger of doom is nonsense. Again, it all very well may fail. But if anything, last night makes success marginally more likely. 2/2
Greg Sargent / @theplumlinegs: CODA: As we wrote, a delay should NOT be seen as the sky falling. Instead of misinforming readers, tell them this is typical of major, complex legislation. Differences remain deep. But if the bills remain linked, bridging them is more likely, not less: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: Something's Very Wrong with the Times
Dan Froomkin / @froomkin: FFS “The Democratic Civil War Has a Winner: Donald Trump” And: “The stakes for Biden are about as existential as they come in politics” https://twitter.com/...
Greg Sargent / @theplumlinegs: As expected, the postponement of the vote is being treated as a “crushing blow” and a “huge setback” to Biden's agenda. Utterly ludicrous. Such things happen all the time with complex legislation. This kind of coverage, which masquerades as savvy, is the opposite of savvy. 1/
Clark Merrefield / Nieman Lab:
Studies show the enduring influence of local TV news, still among the most trusted ways US residents get news, and examine tech's impact and Sinclair's growth — There is no shortage of surveys indicating many Americans don't trust the news media. The U.S. registers the lowest levels …
Discussion:
@jasonalcorn, @niemanfdn, @directorcarey, @newyorkcommuter, @spj_tweets and @niemanlab
Discussion:
Jason Alcorn / @jasonalcorn: This new fact sheet on local nonprofit news from @INN is invaluable:"Nearly one launch per month for each of the past three years." https://inn.org/...
@niemanfdn: Research explores how local TV news affects public perceptions of pandemic protocols, the rise of national coverage on local TV news, and changes in how local TV journalists do their jobs: https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Carey Higgins-Dobney, Ph.D. / @directorcarey: Much to my surprise, my research is one of the 5 recent studies on local TV news featured in NiemanLab this week! https://www.niemanlab.org/... via @NiemanLab
Bob Monek / @newyorkcommuter: Interesting insights into local news. I am especially concerned about political propaganda influencing news coverage as we have seen at the national level. Sinclair seems to have paid a price for setting that sort of agenda. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Angela Fu / Poynter:
Several current and former Gannett journalists share stories about unpaid overtime, after NewsGuild said it was investigating Gannett's workplace culture — The NewsGuild is investigating the issue and asking all Gannett employees to fill out a survey reporting unpaid work
Discussion:
Nikki Usher / @nikkiusher: You know, I was a pretty talented young journalist & quit so early. There were lots of reasons why - (including covering super traumatic stuff) but this was another https://www.poynter.org/...
Rebekah Sanders / @rebekahlsanders: .@Gannett CEO Mike Reed claims unpaid overtime is an “isolated” problem in newsrooms. But Gannett just paid a $650,000 settlement in federal court for forcing 95 call center employees to work off the clock. https://www.poynter.org/...
Jordan Morey / @jordanamorey: This isn't, by any means, unique to Gannett. Ask any sports editor working at a small paper how many extra hours they put in per week off the clock. https://www.poynter.org/...
@poynter: “There's been so many hours that I lost working for other newsrooms that didn't offer overtime, and it was so uncomfortable to have to just pretend that you weren't doing it because you know you can't ask for it.” https://www.poynter.org/...
Jackie Torok / @redhenjackie: (A-hem: Gannett's not the only guilty chain. Ask me how I know.) Journalists report working hundreds of hours of unpaid overtime at Gannett papers https://www.poynter.org/...
Dillon Rosenblatt / @dillonreedrose: Waiting for the day when @Gannett stops bullshitting everyone. I imagine that will never happen though especially when the statement provided accuses its own reporters of spreading misinformation. https://www.poynter.org/...
@mediaguildwest: Poorly run newsrooms sometimes force journalists into accepting wage theft as part of the workplace culture by making it as hard as possible to ask for rightfully owed overtime pay, like how @azcentral treated @ujohnnyg and others in the @azrepublicguild. https://www.poynter.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Arizona Republic Guild / @azrepublicguild: “When I did ask and other employees asked (for overtime pay), they'd be told, ‘You need to learn to manage your time better.’” Our job as journalists often requires more than 40 hours of work each week. But at @Gannett, we aren't always paid for it. https://www.poynter.org/...
@poynter: Multiple journalists have come forward to share stories about working overtime without pay at Gannett after an editor at The Arizona Republic wrote a tweet implying that the practice was just another way of “gaining experience.” https://www.poynter.org/...
Sarah Bahr / @smbahr14: “Overwork in journalism is a pretty insidious problem. There's been so many hours that I lost working for newsrooms that didn't offer overtime, and it was so uncomfortable to have to just pretend you weren't doing it because you know you can't ask for it."https://www.poynter.org/ ...
@kerrymflynn: “Getting this reaction that 15 or 30 min is going to bankrupt the company really kind of pressures you to just ignore it. Like, 'Well it's just 15 min. Oh, it's just 30 min.' But it's not. It's time that you worked” @angelanfu w more on Gannett unpaid OT https://www.poynter.org/...
Joshua Bowling / @mrjoshuabowling: Journalists at The Arizona Republic are known for their attention to detail, their willingness to chase a story to the end. But they're also know for their bravery and their willingness to speak up. These people make me proud to work here. https://www.poynter.org/...
Amitha Kalaichandran / Poynter:
How editors can better assess the credibility of experts and raise standards for op-eds, as contrarian viewpoints on COVID-19 flood opinion sections — An influx of contrarian viewpoints on COVID-19 policy in mainstream opinion journalism could have dire consequences on how the pandemic plays out.
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
INN: the number of local nonprofit news sites nearly doubled since 2016, with 33 launching between 2018 and 2020; single-topic nonprofits quadrupled since 2008 — The number of single-topic nonprofit news organizations has quadrupled since 2008, according to a series of new reports …
Brian Welk / The Wrap:
Hollywood Foreign Press Association appoints Todd Boehly, co-founder and CEO of investment firm Eldridge Industries, as interim CEO — The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has named hedge fund billionaire Todd Boehly as its interim CEO. — Boehly, the founder and CEO …
Discussion:
Sharon Waxman / @sharonwaxman: I'm sorry, am I the only person who thinks naming a billionaire white guy with a financial interest in the Golden Globes to run a non-profit that has publicly committed to diversity and cleaning up corruption is THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN? U must b joking. https://www.thewrap.com/...
RELATED:
Clayton Davis / Variety:
HFPA adds 21 members, increasing its membership by 20%, of which 48% identify as women, 29% as Black, 24% as Asian, 29% as Latinx, and 19% as MENA
Discussion:
@mariocinema: An honor to be invited from #HFPA to be part of their 2021 class. Let's be a bridge for Latinx talent and the Cinema & TV world. Art builds healthy communities. @goldenglobes https://variety.com/...
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