© AFP
Al Jazeera America is closing its doors, CEO Al Anstey told staffers on Wednesday in an all-hands meeting. The small broadcast channel, which has operated on the periphery of U.S. broadcast media since opening up in 2013, will cease to exist on April 30.
"[O]ur business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace," Anstey said in a memo circulated to staff. "The decision that has been made is in no way because AJAM has done anything but a great job. Our commitment to great journalism is unrivaled."
It's a harsh blow to a staff that only months ago had declared
victory over an unsympathetic management that refused to voluntarily recognize a union of its digital employees. Organizers at AJAM kick-started an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board and won with an overwhelmingly majority. "Every employee in the office I work in put a ballot in," said National Editor Gregg Levine.
Levine, among others, told
International Business Times that the union fight was another example of the dysfunction coming from the top of the company. "You'd think that Al Jazeera America management would understand where the 21st century is going. But instead they chose to behave in the way they have behaved in general, which was what made it really easy to organize in the first place."
"They don't give you a straight answer, they delay and defer, pretend it's somebody else's decision," he added.
Comment: The reasons given to the public are probably not the real reasons they are closing up shop. For more on Qatar's Al-Jazeera network, see: