{"id":838581,"date":"2021-10-02T12:14:23","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T16:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=838581"},"modified":"2021-10-02T12:14:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T16:14:26","slug":"ozy-media-shuts-down-after-scrutiny-over-inflated-site-statistics-and-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ozy-media-shuts-down-after-scrutiny-over-inflated-site-statistics-and-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"Ozy Media Shuts Down After Scrutiny Over Inflated Site Statistics And Reach"},"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\">24<\/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%2Fozy-media-shuts-down-after-scrutiny-over-inflated-site-statistics-and-reach%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=838581&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1209911564.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A week after a blistering New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/26\/business\/media\/ozy-media-goldman-sachs.html\">report<\/a> raised questions about whether Ozy, a digital media company aimed at millennials and founded in 2013, was being honest about how many people it reached through its various products, the company announced that it is ceasing operations.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement came on Friday, just five days after the Times report was published and after Ozy CEO Carlos Watson released a lengthy statement insisting the Times report was wildly inaccurate and misleading. He called it a \u201cridiculous hitjob.\u201d The statement from Ozy\u2019s board was posted online by Times columnist Ben Smith, who wrote the original article calling into question the company\u2019s business practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt Ozy, we have been blessed with a remarkable team of dedicated staff. Many of them are world-class journalists and experienced professionals to whom we owe tremendous gratitude, and who are wonderful colleagues. It is therefore with the heaviest of hearts that we must announce today that we are closing Ozy\u2019s doors,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" readability=\"5.5522388059701\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">News: Ozy is shutting down. Here\u2019s the statement from the Ozy board <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/syOUrTtKBD\">pic.twitter.com\/syOUrTtKBD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ben Smith (@benyt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/benyt\/status\/1444048250898685954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 1, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/01\/business\/media\/ozy-media-carlos-watson.html\">reported<\/a> of Ozy\u2019s collapse:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"11\">\n<p><em>The abrupt collapse riveted media observers not because Ozy had a large number of loyal readers \u2014 that, in the end, was the problem \u2014 but because many had wondered how the company had managed to survive. The answer had to do with a charismatic and relentless founder, a great story and a slick brand that was perfectly tuned to appeal to noted Silicon Valley investors and powerful advertising executives.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The original Times report began with a story about a conference call between Ozy and Goldman Sachs, which in February was nearly ready to purchase the media company. From Smith:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"25\">\n<p><em>The scheduled participants included Alex Piper, the head of unscripted programming for YouTube Originals. He was running late and apologized to the Goldman Sachs team, saying he\u2019d had trouble logging onto Zoom, and he suggested that the meeting be moved to a conference call, according to four people who were briefed on the meeting, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal details of a private discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Once everyone had made the switch to an old-fashioned conference call, the guest told the bankers what they had been wanting to hear: that Ozy was a great success on YouTube, racking up significant views and ad dollars, and that Mr. Watson was as good a leader as he seemed to be. As he spoke, however, the man\u2019s voice began to sound strange to the Goldman Sachs team, as though it might have been digitally altered, the four people said.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Someone from Goldman Sachs reached out to Piper through a contact at YouTube. Piper said he had no idea what was going on and had never spoken about the deal. Goldman determined that someone had pretended to be Piper on the call. YouTube\u2019s security team took the impersonation seriously and opened an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Carlos Watson, Ozy\u2019s chief executive, ended up apologizing and saying that Ozy co-founder and COO Samir Rao had impersonated the YouTube executive. Watson said Rao suffered a mental health crisis and briefly left the company to handle it before returning.<\/p>\n<p>The Times also noted that Ozy\u2019s claims of social reach seem far-fetched, as Comscore shows they reached 2.5 million people at times in 2018 but less than 500,000 a month this summer. By contrast, Ozy claimed in 2019 that it had 50 million monthly unique users. Brian Morrissey, former editor-in-chief of the publication Digiday, said the numbers didn\u2019t make sense, remembering that \u201cnever once in my life has a piece of content from Ozy crossed into my world organically.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ozy CEO Watson&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/carloswatson\/status\/1442351771544735749\/photo\/1\">responded<\/a>&nbsp;to the Times\u2019 \u201cridiculous hitjob\u201d by insisting its unique users comes from multiple platforms, including its email newsletter subscribers (it claims to have 26 million subscribers across five newsletters, which would mean an average of 5.2 million each), podcasts, TV shows, and its festivals.<\/p>\n<p>Even some of that seems suspect, given Ozy\u2019s inaccurate claims. The company claimed on billboards in Los Angeles that \u201cThe Carlos Watson Show\u201d was \u201cAmazon Prime\u2019s First Talk Show,\u201d even though it did not partner with Amazon Prime. The show was uploaded to Amazon Prime using a service, but it is not an Amazon Prime show as most people would understand it. Amazon complained about Ozy\u2019s claims and the company promised to take them down, though Watson maintains the claim is \u201caccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ozy\u2019s claims of millions of subscribers and viewers seemed especially suspect since so many people had never heard of the outlet or seen any articles from it. Indeed, when reporting about Ozy\u2019s downfall, The Verge titled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/10\/1\/22704636\/ozy-media-disappears-carlos-watson-ben-smith\">its piece<\/a>: \u201cOzy Media shuts down just one week after most of us found out it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Verge reported that after the initial Times report, more claims from Ozy \u201cstarted to unravel.\u201d From the outlet:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"10.654343807763\">\n<p><em>That includes pretty much any claim about its reach and traffic (a site claiming to have 25 million newsletter subscribers should be more well-known), and its claims to have reported on public figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) before other outlets. While those claims were echoed in reporting like this article on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/ozy-revenue-profitability-carlos-watson-cdd726df-2e3d-49d7-abad-7ac6036f7013.html\">Axios<\/a>,&nbsp;Nieman Lab&nbsp;reporter Joshua Benton&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.niemanlab.org\/2021\/09\/ozy-says-its-great-at-discovering-big-names-before-the-mainstream-media-but-is-it\/\">investigated<\/a>&nbsp;and found that even in the cases Ozy cited, its coverage came months or years after the subjects had been covered thoroughly in mainstream publications.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Watson also claimed that since the company\u2019s Ozy Fest sounded so much like Ozzfest \u2013 the hard rock and heavy metal music festival founded by Ozzy Osbourne and his former wife Sharon \u2013 that Sharon invested in Ozy. Sharon Osbourne disputed that claim to CNBC, saying they had never been shareholders, calling Watson \u201cthe biggest shyster I have ever seen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Further, a former producer for Watson\u2019s show revealed that big-name guests had been told their interviews would appear on A&amp;E, but the network had passed on the show prior to filming. Also, Ozy Media ran an ad in the Times that claimed Dateline referred to Watson as \u201cThe best interviewer on TV,\u201d when it was actually Ozy COO Samir Rao who said that while appearing on Dateline.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week after a blistering New York Times report raised questions about whether Ozy, a digital media company aimed at millennials and founded in 2013, was being honest about how &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838581","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}