{"id":1757252,"date":"2022-11-30T14:49:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T19:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757252"},"modified":"2022-11-30T14:49:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T19:49:30","slug":"progressive-news-outlet-launched-with-uae-money-loses-ceo-burns-millions-of-dollars-on-fancy-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/progressive-news-outlet-launched-with-uae-money-loses-ceo-burns-millions-of-dollars-on-fancy-offices\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressive News Outlet Launched With UAE Money Loses CEO, Burns Millions of Dollars on Fancy Offices"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fprogressive-news-outlet-launched-with-uae-money-loses-ceo-burns-millions-of-dollars-on-fancy-offices%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757252&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The progressive news outlet <em>Grid<\/em>, which launched last January with seed funding from the United Arab Emirates and a masthead of high-profile media talent, has reportedly lost its CEO amid internal confusion over its business model, while burning &#8220;millions of dollars&#8221; on fancy offices and a 50-person staff.<\/p>\n<p><em>Grid<\/em> cofounder and CEO Mark Bauman, who raised at least $10 million for the venture, stepped down earlier this month and will take on an advisory role with the website, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/newsletters\/axios-media-trends-698a328c-a2f7-4a04-8534-e4c7c46db59b.html?chunk=2&#038;utm_term=twsocialshare#story2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to <em>Axios<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The news comes less than a year after <em>Grid<\/em>\u2018s launch. The media outlet, which describes itself as a &#8220;collaborative newsroom of beat reporters&#8221; that seeks to provide a &#8220;more-complete picture&#8221; of major news stories, was developed by registered lobbyists for the UAE, the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> first <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/uae-lobbyists-developed-progressive-media-outlet-grid-with-funding-from-uae-deputy-prime-minister\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n<p>Despite attracting some big-name writers\u2014including blogger Matt Yglesias as its editor at large\u2014<em>Grid<\/em> has yet to break through in the crowded media landscape.<\/p>\n<p><em>Axios<\/em> reported the outlet is &#8220;losing millions of dollars paying for high-end office space in Washington while also supporting the salaries of over 50 employees.&#8221; <em>Grid<\/em> has pulled in fewer than 13,000 followers on Twitter despite employing at least four people on its audience-building team, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>APCO Worldwide, a D.C. lobbying firm, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> last year that it was involved with advising <em>Grid<\/em> during its development. APCO, a foreign agent for the UAE at the time, declined to say which client enlisted its services for <em>Grid<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;APCO Worldwide provided consulting services for <em>Grid<\/em> during the first half of 2021,&#8221; APCO spokesman Jimmy Koo told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;APCO has no continuing role at <em>Grid<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bauman, the departing CEO, raised seed funding for <em>Grid<\/em> from International Media Investments, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/12\/business\/grid-news-site-live.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to the <em>New York Times<\/em>. International Media Investments is a holding company owned by Emirati royal Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy prime minister of the UAE and the half-brother of the nation&#8217;s president.<\/p>\n<p><em>Grid<\/em> told <em>Axios<\/em> that, despite Bauman&#8217;s departure, its investors are &#8220;committed&#8221; to <em>Grid<\/em>\u2018s success and that the organization does &#8220;not anticipate needing to raise funds from others to support our growing newsroom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The outlet hasn&#8217;t written many articles that mention the UAE, according to a search of its website, or focused extensively on topics of interest to the Gulf state, such as opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal.<\/p>\n<p>Three days before Bauman announced his resignation, <em>Grid<\/em> published an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The progressive news outlet Grid, which launched last January with seed funding from the United Arab Emirates and a masthead of high-profile media talent, has reportedly lost its CEO amid internal confusion over its business model, while burning &#8220;millions of dollars&#8221; on fancy offices and a 50-person staff.<br \/>\nThe post Progressive News Outlet Launched With UAE Money Loses CEO, Burns Millions of Dollars on Fancy Offices appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":1237852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1757252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1237852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}