Vocativ, a 4-year-old website that billed itself as a company searching for investigative stories from the “deep web,” has laid off 22 staffers — nearly all of its editorial staff — as it shifts gears to a video-only company.
The success Vocativ has had in both “long- and short-form video has positioned [it] well” for the change, it said in a statement. The videos will be distributed via social media and other platforms.
Vocativ was founded by Israeli businessman Mati Kochavi, who made a fortune by selling to the Abu Dhabi government closed-circuit surveillance cameras produced by Logic Industries, a subsidiary of his AGT International.
Early in its life, Vocativ was losing $20 million a year, sources said.
“They never made any money,” said one source familiar with Vocativ.
A spokesman for Vocativ disagreed, saying, “The company is profitable.” The spokesman declined to elaborate.
Kochavi also developed a close connection with Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel, the head of William Morris Endeavor that took over sports powerhouse IMG. Emanuel was frequently spotted in editorial meetings at Vocativ, sources said.
In a February 2014 New York Times article about Vocativ, Emanuel was quoted as saying he was “very impressed” with the technology and was thinking of making a minority investment.
The investment never happened — but Emanuel did represent Vocativ and was instrumental in getting it to produce “Deep Net” for Showtime.
The show was recently renewed for a second season.
Emanuel and Kochavi did team up to form a joint venture, called Heed, which is said to be a data analytics company for live events such as New York Fashion Week.
Vivian Schiller, former head of NPR, has been an adviser to Kochavi and is executive chairman of Vocativ. The company has no full-time CEO.
Dana Rabin, who joined as chief operating officer following a shake-up in 2015, is the highest-ranking executive at the company. Greg Gittich, who joined at the same time as chief content officer, left 16 months ago to take the same title at Mashable.
After the pink slips were handed out, Schiller created a list of all the laid-off employees and was urging other companies to hire them, sources said.
Ben Reininga, the editor-in-chief, and Adi Kochavi, the founder’s daughter, were among those who survived the cuts, sources said. She is listed as the president of Vocativ Films.