Ex-The Messenger employees sue outlet over terminations

Former employees of The Messenger, a digital news outlet that shut down this week, have sued the company over their terminations, claiming they were let go without proper notice.

The New York Times first reported the outlet's closure and at least one employee indicated online he and his colleagues learned of their terminations through the news rather than from their employer. The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York by former Senior Producer Pilar Belendez-Desha, contends that the outlet confirmed their termination only after the story broke.

"Within minutes after the story broke, The Messenger confirmed to the approximately 300 employees that they were terminated effective immediately," it claims, according to The Hill. The former employees assert the company violated both the federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Acts by terminating them without proper notice. The federal act requires 60-day notice ahead of shutdowns and major layoffs while the state version requires 90-days notice.

They are seeking "up to 60 days wages and benefits" from the outlet.

Founded last year by Jimmy Finkelstein, the former owner of The Hill, the company fell well short of its revenue goals, earning just $3 million out of the target $100 million by the end of 2023.

The suit comes after a bad month for the news industry as a whole, with a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas tracking 528 layoffs across digital, print, and broadcast news outlets in January alone, not including The Messenger employees.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.