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In a Times report Thursday, Brad Bessey, an Emmy-winning executive producer, and Heidi Clements, a longtime television screenwriter, said Ozy executives misled them as they worked on “The Carlos Watson Show”, Mr. Watson’s speech. show, for the company. Specifically, they said, executives told them the show would appear on the A&E cable network. Mr Bessey resigned when he learned that such a deal did not exist, and the show ended up appearing on YouTube and the Ozy website.
Also this week: Advertisers such as Chevrolet, Walmart, Facebook, Target and Goldman Sachs itself – many of whom had paid to be placed on “The Carlos Watson Show” – curbed their spending with Ozy.
On Friday afternoon, Mr. Watson and the other remaining board member, Michael Moe (another prominent investment figure, who had published a book called “Finding the Next Starbucks”), concluded that the company could not recover and issued the farewell statement. through a spokesperson.
Mr Watson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNN, Insider and other publications reported this week that working conditions at Ozy were tough, and The Times, along with other publications, raised questions about the company’s claims about audience size of its online videos and website.
Ozy staff received the news that the company was no longer on Friday afternoon. “It is heartbreaking for all the people who put their heart and soul into this business and produced journalism often under grueling, sometimes hostile conditions, which deserved a much larger audience,” said Pooja Bhatia, a writer who worked at Ozy from 2013 to 2017, said in an interview shortly after being briefed.
Nick Fouriezos, a journalist from Ozy who left in June, said: “We were all devastated by the amount of deception that was taking place on the part of the leaders, but I would 100% support the journalism that was being done there- down and people who worked. there were some of the most passionate, hard-working journalists.
Mr Fouriezos said on Friday that reporters frantically archived their stories, anticipating the possibility that the website could be taken offline and their work lost.
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