6 ms·

I’m glad someone is pointing this out. The article makes it sound like the accused company is wrapped up in a lot of social justice propaganda. Hucksters like t

I’m glad someone is pointing this out. The article makes it sound like the accused company is wrapped up in a lot of social justice propaganda. Hucksters like this CEO know how to leverage woke messaging to their benefit. Woke is good for business. That their first instinct was to frame the excuse as empathy for an employee struggling with a “mental health episode” says it all. They know their audience. Their YouTube Channel [1] makes it immediately obvious they do not have anything close to a consistent viewership audience of millions. Anyone who invested in this should fire their entire due diligence staff. Existing investors are the main idiots here, with Goldman only redeeming themselves at the last minute. YouTube doesn’t have much skin (no pun intended) in the game. Nobody is gonna pursue this further because it will look bad. [1] https://www.youtube.com/OZY https://www.youtube.com/OZY

CPLX 5y ago
Holy shit they have multiple videos with zero views and tons more with less than 10 or less than 100 views. For a company that claims to have 25 million newsletter subscribers?
pessimizer 5y ago
They're just vapid and corporate, and vapid and corporate means a lot of warmed over cultural studies buzzwords. Raising capital based on wokeness is a no-lose situation (ask Theranos.) As an investor, you can count your investment as pseudo-charity work in your press releases and reports.
concinds 5y ago
It has to be some kind of money laundering scam, or other fraud, right? Surely, no matter how out of touch they are, these old investors understand that not a single teen and college studens actually watches Ted Talks every day, reads Vox, listens to the NYT Daily on their way to classes, and has the Open Society Foundations RSS feed on their phone, right? They understand no one actually gives a F** about "media companies that challenge the status quo, shake things up, and go deep on the issues that matter most". Come on! The most "media" they watch is Linus Media Group, the Daily Show, and John Oliver. Only slightly exaggerating. It's impossible for them to be this out of touch!
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Is there any data to back this up? IIRC, the NYT is performing very well in the 20-something demographic. Also, IME generally people start reading more seriously, such as the NY Times, etc., when they're older; we need data on how such a media company performs in markets relative to some standard for realistic expectations. I'm sure the NY Times has few readers among high schoolers, but that doesn't indicate future problems
danrocks 5y ago
This is what made me angry about this story the most. "Mental health episode" is quickly becoming a universal excuse anybody can use for anything for mild discomfort to downright criminal behavior. Elizabeth Holmes is going down the same path in her defense. Woke is good for business, let's see if good enough to stay out of jail. For Samir Rao, it probably is.
jrmg 5y ago
So, I don't want to say they're completely on the up-and-up, but you _are_ looking at the corporate YouTube channel. Their "Carlos Watson Show" channel looks a lot more legit (though nowhere near the numbers they're claiming): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyF0994XbriKL_Vss0fTUMw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyF0994XbriKL_Vss0fTUMw and they also produce podcasts, news articles, and newsletters that presumably have some subscribers: https://www.ozy.com/pg/podcast/ https://www.ozy.com/pg/podcast/ https://www.ozy.com/pg/news-and-politics/ https://www.ozy.com/pg/news-and-politics/ https://www.ozy.com/newsletters/ https://www.ozy.com/newsletters/
- RSZC 5y ago
  Are we looking at the same Carlos Watson show? Looking at their most recent upload, it has 363 views in 3 days, and that's actually above average.
  - jrmg 5y ago
    Well, ‘a lot’ is relative… But yes, I agree with you.
- blitzar 5y ago
  > Their "Carlos Watson Show" channel looks a lot more legit Best part of 100k subscribers - and views for the videos 1 week ago: 223, 223000, 249, 188, 82, 232, 570, 123, 14000, 102. I guess they forgot to buy followers for the Carlos Watson Show instagram account, 1,075 followers. Although it does get about as many likes and comments as the posts on the 'corporate' Instagram account with its 655k followers.

CPLX 5y ago

Holy shit they have multiple videos with zero views and tons more with less than 10 or less than 100 views. For a company that claims to have 25 million newsletter subscribers?

pessimizer 5y ago

They're just vapid and corporate, and vapid and corporate means a lot of warmed over cultural studies buzzwords. Raising capital based on wokeness is a no-lose situation (ask Theranos.) As an investor, you can count your investment as pseudo-charity work in your press releases and reports.

concinds 5y ago

It has to be some kind of money laundering scam, or other fraud, right? Surely, no matter how out of touch they are, these old investors understand that not a single teen and college studens actually watches Ted Talks every day, reads Vox, listens to the NYT Daily on their way to classes, and has the Open Society Foundations RSS feed on their phone, right? They understand no one actually gives a F** about "media companies that challenge the status quo, shake things up, and go deep on the issues that matter most". Come on! The most "media" they watch is Linus Media Group, the Daily Show, and John Oliver. Only slightly exaggerating. It's impossible for them to be this out of touch!

wolverine876 5y ago
Is there any data to back this up? IIRC, the NYT is performing very well in the 20-something demographic. Also, IME generally people start reading more seriously, such as the NY Times, etc., when they're older; we need data on how such a media company performs in markets relative to some standard for realistic expectations. I'm sure the NY Times has few readers among high schoolers, but that doesn't indicate future problems

danrocks 5y ago

This is what made me angry about this story the most. "Mental health episode" is quickly becoming a universal excuse anybody can use for anything for mild discomfort to downright criminal behavior. Elizabeth Holmes is going down the same path in her defense. Woke is good for business, let's see if good enough to stay out of jail. For Samir Rao, it probably is.

jrmg 5y ago

So, I don't want to say they're completely on the up-and-up, but you _are_ looking at the corporate YouTube channel. Their "Carlos Watson Show" channel looks a lot more legit (though nowhere near the numbers they're claiming): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyF0994XbriKL_Vss0fTUMw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyF0994XbriKL_Vss0fTUMw and they also produce podcasts, news articles, and newsletters that presumably have some subscribers: https://www.ozy.com/pg/podcast/ https://www.ozy.com/pg/podcast/ https://www.ozy.com/pg/news-and-politics/ https://www.ozy.com/pg/news-and-politics/ https://www.ozy.com/newsletters/ https://www.ozy.com/newsletters/

RSZC 5y ago
Are we looking at the same Carlos Watson show? Looking at their most recent upload, it has 363 views in 3 days, and that's actually above average.
- jrmg 5y ago
  Well, ‘a lot’ is relative… But yes, I agree with you.
blitzar 5y ago
> Their "Carlos Watson Show" channel looks a lot more legit Best part of 100k subscribers - and views for the videos 1 week ago: 223, 223000, 249, 188, 82, 232, 570, 123, 14000, 102. I guess they forgot to buy followers for the Carlos Watson Show instagram account, 1,075 followers. Although it does get about as many likes and comments as the posts on the 'corporate' Instagram account with its 655k followers.