The Messenger prez Richard ‘Mad Dog’ Beckman exits as money-losing news site begins layoffs
NY Post
The president of embattled news startup the Messenger said Tuesday he is leaving the company as it begins a fresh wave of layoffs.
Richard Beckman, a former Conde Nast executive whose hard-charging business style earned him the nickname “Mad Dog,” was responsible for drumming up revenue for the website, which launched last May.
Prior to the Messenger’s launch, Beckman boldly claimed in a New York Times profile that the site would generate more than $100 million in revenue in 2024, reel in 100 million monthly readers and hire hundreds of reporters across the country.
But sources close to the situation said Beckman fell “very short” of those goals and that he and Messenger founder and CEO Jimmy Finkelstein “did not see eye to eye” over how to run the struggling business.
After Beckman announced his exit, Finkelstein sent a memo to staff about impending layoffs while claiming the site’s traffic “continues to grow exponentially, with ComScore reporting 88 million page views in November, and we will be higher in December.”
However, a source with knowledge told The Post the startup had about 12.5 million unique visitors in November.
