Was Ozy Doomed From the Start?
It aspired to change the world of media. Instead, Ozy flamed out in classic old school style
Ozy was always more than a tad pretentious. “Who in their right mind would name their company after Ozymandias?” one friend recently asked. Based in Mountain View, California, and fueled by Silicon Valley investors, it was billed as a “modern media company,” a new tech-centric media conglomerate that was going to show the old school media companies how it’s done.
Instead, Ozy is simply another member of the dead media boneyard, gone after eight years amid reports of scandal and alleged misdoings. The New York Times reported (“Goldman Sachs, Ozy Media and a $40 Million Conference Call Gone Wrong”) that the co-founder and COO had allegedly impersonated a YouTube executive in a conference call to help persuade Goldman Sachs to invest in the company. Several industry analysts suggested the company was cooking its readership numbers.
Yadda, yadda, yadda… the company said the co-founder has mental health issues, they denied that they were making up readership numbers, top executives resigned and a few days later the company’s board announced the company is dead.
I was a casual contributor to the site for many years and I am zero-degrees surprised to learn of its shady…
