Carlos Watson, Ozy Media founder and CEO, has resigned from NPR’s board. It is the latest in a string of setbacks suffered by the media group.
NPR reported that Watson’s resignation letter arrived to the board’s chairman just prior to the governance committee meeting later in the day to determine his status. Watson joined NPR’s board in 2016 and was re-elected for his second, three-year term on the board, which would have begun this month.
“Earlier today, Carlos Watson submitted his resignation from the NPR Board of Directors. I have accepted his resignation on behalf of the Board. Mr. Watson’s resignation is effective as of today,”LaFontaine Oliver, chair of the NPR Board, stated in a statement that.
This news comes after a week of scandalous exits and scandals at Ozy Media, all stemming out from a New York Times exposéPublished Sunday. Chairman Marc Lasry resigned Thursday. Former BBC anchor Katty Jay resigned as an executive producer, senior editor, and on Tuesday, COO Samir Raho took a leave. It was reported that Rao had impersonated a Google executive in a fundraising conference with Goldman Sachs. Watson also resigned earlier this week from hosting the Emmy Awards ceremony in news and documentaries.
Over the last week, several investors, partners and employees have distanced themselves from Watson or the company since the exposé. Ron Conway, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, gave up all of his shares. Conway was one Ozy’s first investors.
A representative at A&E also confirmed that the network has pulled its second installment of an Ozy program “Voices Magnified”That was to take place on Monday.
The Times exposé accused the company of inflating its web and video numbers and revealed an FBI fraud investigation into Rao.
On Monday, Watson told that the Times piece was “a bulls— ad hominem attack,”He defended Samir Rao, co-founder of Google, for pretending to be a Google executive during a conference call with representatives from Goldman Sachs and also disputed the claim that Ozy overstated its video stream and web traffic figures.
He said the company’s revenue last year rose to $50 million and came primarily from non-web properties including newsletters, podcasts, TV shows and Facebook and YouTube streams. Live festivals, another revenue stream for the company were on hiatus during COVID.