What gets me is that these writers are not very good.
I have only one paid newspaper subscription, to the G&M. That has some vary good writers. The Cap Daily writers don't write with any style whatsoever. It's boring. And the Sooke Harbour House story is not very exciting, especially when you know the previous owners, that were quite odd people.
And then of course, they continue to betray their very own employers:
Ricochet has now spoken to a number of OMG sources, reviewed leaked recordings of a meeting Mohamed held with remaining staff after last week’s layoffs, and a meeting he had with subscribers this week. We’ve also been provided with multiple screenshots from the company’s internal Slack as well as a confidential pitch deck used to woo investors.
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Many OMG employees signed non-disclosure agreements prior to joining the company, and those that were fired were required to sign new “non-disparagement” agreements in order to receive their severance payments. In this context, sources have requested anonymity in this reporting due to fear of retaliation.
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Mohamed makes clear that the financial concern is over slumping advance ad sales starting in March, and the fact subscriber revenue has plateaued — fairly typical speed bumps for any growing outlet. He tells staff a looming recession is bad news for advertising, and his projections show the outlet could lose as much as a quarter million dollars over the next six months, so they need to overhaul the newsletter to make it more appealing to businesses. He says they “tried everything” with the current team, but laments the lack of support the business team has received from the editorial team. He goes on to argue that they need to “replace” the team that was fired and “hire different people.”
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In contrast to this doom and gloom, a pitch deck used to raise money for Overstory in June of 2022 described Capital Daily as wildly profitable.
Subscriber numbers, it reports, had nearly quadrupled since 2020. Better yet, they project revenue to quadruple in four years and profits to multiply tenfold or more, blowing past $500,000 annually in a few years.
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OMG sources also tell Ricochet that two employees in the sales department were approached by members of the union organizing team in the week before the firings, and told it was their last chance to sign union cards as the union would be announced imminently. Organizers had long suspected members of the sales team were passing information to Mohamed, sources say.
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“You keep saying we need to make changes, but what?” The editor of one of OMG’s Victoria-based spin-off newsletters is blasting the boss in an all-hands meeting following the firings. “I still don’t know. We had a team that was putting together the newsletter every day, and they’re all gone. I do the West Shore, Ryan does Tasting Vic, and we’ve got Tori who does investigations. So now we have Michael (an intern) and Nina doing the newsletter seven days a week?
“What are you thinking?”
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 February 2023 - 11:39 AM.
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