Executives at The Messenger, a news start-up, had big ambitions in the months leading up to its public debut. They said they would begin with 175 journalists covering entertainment and politics, change journalism for the better and even make its audience “fall in love” with media again.
But less than a week after it started, tensions are running high.
Journalists have chafed at demands to mass-produce articles based on competitors’ stories. Senior editors huddled with staff on Thursday to address criticism of the site, which had come from Columbia Journalism Review, Harvard’s Nieman Lab and The Wrap, a Hollywood trade publication. And a politics editor quit on Friday after a clash with the company’s audience chief.
Much of the tension at The Messenger and the critical coverage of the site stems from the company’s blitzkrieg approach to digital publishing. The company told The Times earlier this year it is aiming to eventually hit 100 million readers monthly — which would…
This article was written by Benjamin Mullin and originally published on www.nytimes.com