Upstart digital news outlet The Messenger shuts down less than a year after launch

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 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.