The Messenger got shot. In the wake of its spectacular flameout this week, the ill-fated digital news startup is the target of a lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of its 300 ex-employees — who were terminated without notice — which says the company is on the hook for severance payments and benefits.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday (Feb. 1) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks class-action certification. It demands up to 60 days in unpaid wages, accrued vacation time, healthcare insurance coverage and other benefits for sacked The Messenger employees; plaintiff’s attorneys fees and legal expenses; and “Such other and further relief as this Court may deem just and proper.” A copy of the suit is available at this link.
The suit was filed by Pilar Belendez-Desha, who was a senior producer at The Messenger and was previously a producer on Vice Media Group’s “Vice News Tonight,” on behalf of the laid-off Messenger employees. According to the complaint, The Messenger employees were “terminated without cause” without advanced written notice of at least 60 days as required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and without 90 days advance written notice as mandated by the New York WARN Act.
Reps for The Messenger did not respond to email inquiries requesting comment.
The complaint names as a defendant JAF Communications, doing business as The Messenger, which was founded and led by chairman and CEO Jimmy Finkelstein.
Finkelstein raised about $50 million for The Messenger, which launched in May 2023. The Messenger touted itself as an outlet for no-BS reporting with the tagline, “Your Source for Trusted and Unbiased News.” Former employees have alleged The Messenger was set up as a content-aggregation farm, with staffers expected to post a high volume of content to fuel website traffic — which didn’t materialize as expected, leading to a critical cash crunch.
As The Messenger’s funding ran low, on Jan. 2, 2024, the company “abruptly” terminated approximately 20 employees, according to Belendez-Desha’s suit. On Wednesday, Jan. 31, “the remaining employees learned from a New York Times news item that they were being terminated. Within minutes after the story broke, The Messenger confirmed to the approximately 300 employees that they were terminated effective immediately,” the lawsuit said.