In mid-January, Jimmy Finkelstein privately conceded to some friends and business associates that his last-ditch efforts to save The Messenger, his media startup built on a decidedly anachronistic business strategy, might not pan out. By that point, of course, the full scope of his mediaco’s rapid yet entirely predictable demise had been laid bare for all to see. The company that he brought to market in May 2023, propped up by $50 million in funding and an audacious business plan to make $100 million in annual revenue, never passed the smell test. Not only was it predicated on the sort of disintermediated, traffic-at-all costs strategy that nearly euthanized the entire industry, and run incredulously by the indestructible Richard “Mad Dog” Beckman, but it was… nowhere. Did you ever read a Messenger story? I didn’t.