Ozy Media’s Lies Unravelled in Days and Led to Its Closure

The weeklong cleaning soap opera starring Ozy Media got here to a dramatic finish on Friday when the media outlet introduced it was shutting down. Ozy’s finale unfolded in solely 5 days and was fueled by its personal lies and misrepresentations. Nonetheless, one query stays: Why did it take so lengthy for the corporate’s deceptions to achieve the entrance web page?

Ozy’s downfall started with a wild story within the New York Times on Sept. 26 centered round an odd cellphone name this previous February with Goldman Sachs. At the time, the financial institution had been chatting with the media firm about doubtlessly making a $40 million funding, impressed by its obvious massive viewers for its web site and different merchandise. Most importantly, the outlet reported, the deal hinged on Ozy’s “great relationship” with YouTube.

Enter the unusual cellphone name. Goldman wished to talk to YouTube about Ozy’s efficiency on the platform, so Ozy organized a convention name between the three events, together with Alex Piper, the pinnacle of unscripted programming for the YouTube Originals staff. Or relatively, that’s who Ozy claimed was on the road.

During the decision, Piper raved about Ozy’s success on YouTube and mentioned that Carlos Watson, the media firm’s co-founder and CEO, was nice. However, the Goldman representatives informed the Times that Piper’s voice sounded prefer it had been digitally altered. Sensing that one thing was up, the financial institution reached out to Piper through his assistant at YouTube, solely to seek out out that the person had no thought what they have been speaking about. Someone had been impersonating him on the decision between Goldman Sachs and Ozy.

It was later revealed that the impersonator had been Samir Rao, Ozy’s co-founder and chief working officer. Once the jig was up, Watson informed Goldman and the Times that Rao’s conduct was on account of a psychological well being disaster, including that the COO had subsequently taken day off work and was now again at Ozy.

In addition to Rao’s deception, the Times additionally discovered that Ozy’s purported internet site visitors didn’t add up. In 2019, the corporate mentioned it had 50 million distinctive month-to-month customers. Yet Comscore, a number one media analytics agency, discovered that Ozy solely reached about 2.5 million individuals at some factors in 2018. Comparatively, it reached roughly 230,000 and 479,000 individuals in July and July of this yr, respectively. Watson informed the Times that the corporate doesn’t use normal measurements of on-line site visitors — which once more raises questions on how a media outlet with one-of-a-kind measurements could possibly be thought-about profitable and appeal to a lot funding. (Ozy had raised greater than $83 million in funding by 2020.)

It additionally boasted of getting greater than 20 million publication subscribers, an outlandish quantity when in comparison with different profitable publication firms.

Those weren’t Ozy’s solely lies, although. The firm put up billboards in Los Angeles stating that The Carlos Watson Show was Amazon Prime’s first speak present, when it had the truth is solely been importing the present to the platform and was not affiliated with the corporate. Amazon complained, and Ozy mentioned it could take the billboards down. Ozy has additionally mentioned that Watson’s present is “the fastest-growing talk show in YouTube history.” Watson provided no proof to the Times to assist that declare, saying solely that the present had extra views than every other present the corporate had recognized that had been launched on YouTube. (Aside: That sounds loads like “because I said so.”)

At first, Ozy’s management and its supporters tried to downplay the report’s significance, showing to be standing by the corporate. That quickly modified as extra particulars of the shenanigans occurring at Ozy got here to mild, together with the truth that Watson lied when he mentioned that The Carlos Watson Show can be distributed by A&E.

On Tuesday, the Ozy board mentioned it had employed an outdoor regulation agency to research the corporate’s enterprise actions and management staff. On Thursday, board chairman Marc Lasry resigned, stating that he believed, going ahead, “Ozy requires experience in areas like crisis management and investigations, where I do not have particular expertise.”

Also this week, Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ firm devoted to investing and advocacy, mentioned that whereas it had been considered one of Ozy’s first backers, the corporate had not participated within the firm’s newest funding spherical and had not served on its board since 2019.

On Friday, Ozy mentioned it could shut down. The determination leaves 75 full-time workers with no job and turns a so-called media success on its head. Gizmodo reached out to Ozy and to Modern Media, Ozy’s father or mother firm, on Friday however didn’t obtain a response. Ozy’s board of administrators gave Axios the next assertion:

“At 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’s doors.”

And that’s what occurs when your lies meet up with you. Considering the state of the information media, which remains to be hemorrhaging jobs, Ozy’s story is unhappy. What media firm wouldn’t have cherished to have Ozy’s funding and assist? It additionally sends the unsuitable message, one that claims you’ll solely have success in the event you lie.

In our society, it’s frequent to listen to the expression, “fake it till you make it,” usually given as a bit of recommendation. Ozy’s downfall is a reminder that pretending to be one thing you’re not can have disastrous penalties and have an effect on the livelihoods of harmless individuals. Unfortunately, till our society learns to cease promoting smoke and the phantasm of success, there will probably be many extra tales like Ozy’s, which is a disgrace.