Posted on 02/27/2018 4:34:11 PM PST by Kaslin
When we checked in with Newsweek last week, the magazine had just published a news article critical of the magazine’s owners. That article only saw the light of day after a number of reporters and editors threatened to quit if it were spiked. It came after two top editors were fired and a raid based on an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney. Today, the Daily Beast reports the struggling magazine is unable to pay its rent and may face eviction.
Guardian Life Insurance, the sub-landlord for the company’s downtown Manhattan office, informed International Business Times Inc. in late November that it owed several hundred thousand dollars representing “unpaid, delinquent rent and additional rent.”
According an affidavit filed in New York County court in mid February, Guardian claims IBT currently owes the landlord $303,466 in rent…
The company had stopped paying other bills months ago, racking up what Guardian claimed in early December as an additional $309,229 invoice for various utilities and fees.
IBT stopped paying its electric bill in July 2016, stopped paying for condensed water in September 2016, and lagged in paying rent on-time every month since July 2016—resulting in thousands of dollars worth of late fees.
As you might imagine, this dispute ended up in court. The landlord is demanding the company pay all back rent, fearful that it is about to go out of business. Newsweek is claiming it tried to settle that debt and its payment was rejected by Guardian (the landlord). Guardian admits Newsweek paid a portion of the money it owed but says it never paid the rest, an amount over $100,000. Meanwhile, Newsweek sought a temporary order to protect the company from being evicted:
Newsweek (which used to be owned by IAC, parent company of The Daily Beast) also got a temporary so-called “Yellowstone” restraining order to keep the company from being evicted…
The temporary restraining order runs out on Wednesday, allowing Guardian to take legal action against IBT that could result in potential eviction.
A real estate law expert who looked at the various filings told the Daily Beast, “From all that appears, the subtenant [Newsweek] doesn’t have the money to pay and is trying to conjure up ways to delay eviction.”
The company has been laying off staff last week and this week and, according to sources who spoke to the Beast, editors were told more layoffs were imminent. The NY Post has a story about the high-profile firings which took place over the past few days:
Gersh Kuntzman — a veteran editor who had grilled the magazine’s owners at a town hall meeting about the Manhattan district attorney’s raid of Newsweek’s offices last month, reportedly over alleged ad fraud, IRS tax liens and ties to a California-based church — was fired Friday.
On Tuesday, national editor John Seeley was also let go, sources said. One insider said the bloodbath is not over in the wake of a stunning expose by Newsweek reporters and editors last week that detailed how Olivet University, a Bible college affiliated with Newsweek’s corporate parent, offered free ads to Dutchess County officials as it sought tax breaks and permits for a new university there.
“They’re thinning the herd,” said a source.
Given all of this, it certainly doesn’t sound as if this is a company likely to survive. But never underestimate the market for garbage hot takes that tell a segment of readers exactly what they want to hear.
Maybe they can get Eleanor Clift to screech at the bill collectors and drive them off.
yet somehow I am still seeing their garbage articles on the internet.
They are like the creature from the swamp that would not die.
One of the most horrible, lying pieces of trash ever published. Good riddance.
[ Newsweek is unable to pay its bills, faces eviction]
AWESOME.
I am saving this story. Good news is always GOOD.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.
They will die with no regrets and no self reflection. Thank god they die.
The death of the fake news media titans.
I can feel the pain... I got off easy for back rent I offered to pay back.
But Newsweek? Stiffing your landlord is a sign of how to run a business...
Well, bye!
If not for the occasional links posted here, we thought Newsweak went to The Firey Pit - years ago. Haven’t seen an actual copy since around 1980
Or do. A richly deserved demise too. Very biased to port ( and I don’t mean vino)
‘Bye.
They’re up there beside Rolling Stone and the Atlantic. Worse pieces of garbage and a poor excuse for cutting down trees.
Maybe if they were to go to a Liberal point of view, sales would increase. /s
Good riddance. Liberals don’t have jobs, so they don’t buy magazines.
If true, it just shows the left is too stupid to survive.
The media has forgotten what business they are in. They are all in the advertising business. “News”, pictures, stories are just bait to bring eyeballs to the ads.
Now the media has always been biased but usually they were not so over the top one sided. As they drifted into LEFT IS ALWAYS GOOD and CONSERVATIVES ALWAYS EVIL they begin losing subscribers.
For a long time conservatives felt they were out of step but with more and more sources for what is NEWS and or COMMENTARY they have discovered their views are more mainstream then the mainstream media.
So they pulled the welcome mat for half their potential eyeballs and with them gone their advertising rates had to drop (while other expenses continued to rise). Sooner or later crunch time will occur, as it has for Newsweek.
No one killed the media, they committed suicide.
[Eleanor Clift to screech]
I am willing to fund-raise $5 towards Eleanor Clift never screeching again.
She must promise to go to deepest Africa and never return.
We’ll help pay the one-way fare and with in-flight dinner included.
Hahaha! RIP.
They never went digital.
At least further trees have been spared a demise.
Last I heard, they were owned by the Washington Post.
TIME is now the survivor in the weekly newsmagazine market.
“stopped paying for condensed water in September 2016”
No wonder they are going under.
I thought they were state sponsored like Time, CNN, MSNBC, etc.
My favorite was the way she would turn it up to eleven if anyone disagreed with her, making all the microphones go nonlinear and just blanking everyone else out. That, combined with her foul expression, like some sort of gargoyle on a medieval church, was enough to turn the strongest stomach.
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