NEW YORK, NY Jan. 31 (DPI) – A Manhattan news media startup with the vaguely Biblical-sounding name of The Messenger ceased operations and began laying off a 300-person staff this week after barely 10 months of operation.

The company blew through $38 million of venture capital funding in less than a year, according to reports in The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Daily Beast. Most of the funding came from Josh Harris, the investor who owns the Philadelphia 76ers and the Washington Commanders, and who, even after losing $38 million, still has a net worth of $8.1 billion, according to one of those let’s-take-a-wild-guess celebrity net-worth sites.

Much of the coverage of the demise of The Messenger centered on the circumstances of the 300-plus very briefly employed staffers, who would apparently not receive severance or more health benefits after getting the news that their company was closing this week.

The principals of The Messenger – a James Finkelstein and a Richard Beckman – were apparently industry veterans who managed to convince Harris and other investors that their viral-driven-content business model would work. The NYT report offered up this quote from some media entrepreneur who claimed to know the right model for a profitable news site these days:

The Messenger’s fatal flaw was over-relying on tech companies like Google and Meta for its readership instead of engaging directly with its audience through newsletters and in-person events, said S. Mitra Kalita, founder of Epicenter-NYC and URL Media.

“The Messenger was built off expertise of an internet that no longer exists,” Ms. Kalita said. “Facebook was not going to surface its links no matter how clickable those headlines were.”

While the dependence on technology firms for distribution was likely a “fatal flaw”, The Messenger had other problems, like over-hiring and renting too much office space. But readers on the comment board on The Washington Post pointed out another problem. The most popular comments:

“Their PR operation must not have been great because this is the first time I have heard of this publication. Sorry for the people who lost their jobs.”

“Maybe they should have sunk some of that $50 Million into marketing and promotion. I’ve never heard of them – and I’m a media junkie. “

“So they killed the messenger. I heard that wasn’t the thing to do.”

“I’d never even heard of ‘the messenger’, so i guess that tracks.”