dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Newsweek in Turmoil: Probe Into Finances and Ties to Bible College Widens

A probe by the Manhattan district attorney into Newsweek Media Group, including its advertising practices and loans for leases on computer servers, has widened to look at its ties to a Southern California bible college.

Two years ago, a loan application from the parent company of Newsweek raised the suspicions of an employee at a small Minnesota bank.

The bank staffer’s misgivings helped trigger what has become a wide-ranging fraud probe by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, people familiar with the matter say.

Recent weeks have brought an exodus of nearly two dozen journalists from the publication, including some who say they were fired while attempting to report and write about the probe, and the resignation of at least three top executives. Prosecutors raided Newsweek’s lower-Manhattan offices in January and have been interviewing former employees about the company’s operations, people familiar with the situation said.

A culture that former employees say was geared to chase online views failed to pay dividends. That has led to wide-scale layoffs, missed payrolls and a string of debt and tax liens against the company and its executives.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what is happening,” said David Alpern, who spent nearly 45 years as a staffer at the publication before departing in 2009. “Institutions like Newsweek are so hard to keep going in this day and age, and it just makes them so vulnerable to practices that don’t honor, respect or support what it once stood for.”

A spokesman for Newsweek Media Group declined to discuss details of the district attorney’s probe or the company’s financial situation. The company has denied that it engaged in ad fraud.

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.cetusnews.com/business/Newsweek-in-Turmoil–Probe-Into-Finances-and-Ties-to-Bible-College-Widens.ByZ9it7luf.html