Report: Ozy Media isn't just faking it, but making staff miserable

[beschizza]

Originally published at: Report: Ozy Media isn't just faking it, but making staff miserable | Boing Boing

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[KathyPartdeux]

Looks like they forgot the “and run” part.

They could be living the sweet life in Montserrat.

[gracchus]

It’s seeming more and more as if this weird creep Samir Rao was attracted to the larger company culture instead of merely helping to create it.

[Shuck]

I’m not surprised, really. When your executives are former finance-bros with grandiose plans willing to enact constant scams on those they need to keep the company going, there’s a good chance those kind of weird dynamics are going to be extended to the employees, too. Which means, given the power imbalance, lots of boundary-crossing, generally abusive behavior and gaslighting. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more like this, especially once the company starts floundering and they get desperate to keep people onboard.

[Manqueman]

From Day 1, Ozy seemed to be heavy on the sizzle, the substance falling far short of the hype. Over time, they never seemed really to close the gap.
Which is to say it kind of smelled of a grift, take VC money, cash out with an IPO then collapse.
Which is to say, nothing would surprise me about Ozy except it finally matching it’s hype (unlikely). In other words, neither this week’s news nor this post is terribly surprising.

[coyocanid]

I read that as a name at first. Who’s Ozy, I thought.

[Flossaluzitarin]

Ozy had a bunch of day 1s, maybe floated a bit more on YCombinator IIRC, all indicative of having heard of sources, journalism and checking. And not a placement that had heard of print buys. When was Samir supposed to develop the sidestories of desk support and editorial standard (but in the podcasts? Definitely not.)

Their political takes were not like other political takes in the manner that they certainly missed most game conventions. I hope they can stuff the staff miseration plot back.