Money doesn’t solve everything, as three big media companies learned in this week.
Within five days, three news media outlets — the left-leaning HuffPost Live and New Republic, and the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera America — have all publicly announced that they’re either up for sale or closing down.
The failures came even though all three were believed to have been backed by a seemingly endless stream of funding that would see them into a future where they could become profitable.
The latest casualty was Al Jazeera America. It was reported Wednesday that the company owned by the oil-rich Qatar government would cease operations on April 30, less than three years after it launched.
Al Jazeera America was always going to be a tough sell. Its parent company, Al Jazeera, purchased Al Gore’s liberal Current TV to distribute AJA in 2013. Current had already suffered from low ratings and Americans have long been suspicious of Al Jazeera, which was seen as an Islamic terror sympathizer after it aired al Qaeda-produced videos in the aftermath of 9/11.
Still, a steady line of money was pumped into AJA. Scores of seasoned journalists were hired and human-impact programming was beefed up to serve as an alternative to the partisan-heavy content on CNN and Fox News.
It didn’t work. As of now, the channel only averages from 20,000-40,000 viewers per day, according to CNN, which also reported that the decision to shutter AJA was spurred by the recent sharp decline in oil prices.
Another well-funded venture was the takeover of the century-old liberal news magazine The New Republic by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.
On Monday, Hughes announced that “after investing a great deal of time, energy, and over $20 million,” he had “come to the conclusion that it is time for new leadership and vision” for the magazine.
He put it up for sale.
Hughes bought the magazine to great fanfare in 2012. The purchase was seen as an almost charity-like endeavor for Hughes, who indicated in public statements that he was attempting to “preserve” an institution that might otherwise shutdown due to a lack of subscribers.
He had a change of heart. In late 2014, he switched out the magazine’s leadership and suggested to staff that the publication would evolve to be more digitally-focused. Contributing editors interpreted that to mean a dumbing down of the magazine’s content. They resigned in droves.
Like the New Republic, HuffPost Live also appears to have suffered from a lack of consumer interest. The 24/7 online news channel launched by the Huffington Post in 2012 is effectively set for shut down, according to a memo from Post founder and editor Arianna Huffington.
In an open memo to Post staff last week, Huffington said the outlet would be “shifting resources” away from their streaming network and put into creating more “shareable” video content and long-form documentaries.
HuffPost Live received heavy investment for new studios and talented hosts. An anonymous HuffPost Live staffer told CNN it wasn’t enough.
“We all came in with the ‘if you build it, they will come’ mentality, but we built it and no one came.”
