Ozy Media

Last updated

Ozy Media
Company type Private
Industry
FoundedSeptember 2013;12 years ago (2013-09)
Founders
  • Carlos Watson (co-founder and CEO)
  • Samir Rao (co-founder and COO)
DefunctMarch 1, 2023;2 years ago (2023-03-01)
FateShut down after multiple fraud charges
Headquarters
Mountain View, California
,
U.S.
Website www.ozy.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Ozy Media (styled as OZY) was an American media and entertainment company founded in 2012 by journalist Carlos Watson. [1] [2] Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company launched publicly in September 2013 together with Samir Rao. [3] [4] The company published digital news and culture content and produced television shows, podcasts, newsletters, and live events. Its stated mission was to spotlight "the new and the next." [5] [6]

Contents

Between 2013 and 2021, OZY produced four television series for PBS, including Breaking Big, which won the 2019 Imagen Award for Best Informational Program. The company also produced Black Women OWN the Conversation for the Oprah Winfrey Network, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis in 2020. [7] OZY's podcast The Thread was recognized by The Guardian as one of the 25 best podcasts of 2017. [8] The company hosted OZY Fest, an annual live festival in Central Park featuring figures such as Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Malcolm Gladwell. [9] The Late Show with Stephen Colbert credited OZY with providing early coverage of figures such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Trevor Noah, and Amanda Gorman before they rose to prominence. [10]

In September 2021, The New York Times reported that COO Samir Rao had impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman Sachs while seeking investment, and that the company had inflated its traffic numbers. [11] The resulting controversies led to OZY's board announcing closure in October 2021, though Watson reversed the decision days later. [12] [13] In July 2024, Watson and the company were convicted of securities fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft; Watson was sentenced to 116 months in prison. [14] [15] In March 2025, President Donald Trump commuted Watson's sentence hours before he was due to surrender to prison. [16]

History

Founding

OZY Media was founded in 2012 by former CNN and MSNBC anchor Carlos Watson and publicly launched in 2013, together with Samir Rao. [17] The company was headquartered in Mountain View, California, with an additional office in New York City. [18] Watson founded OZY with the stated goal of offering an alternative to mainstream media, targeting what he called the 'Change Generation' with coverage of under-covered stories, global trends, and emerging leaders. [19] The company promoted itself as spotlighting rising figures before they gained wider recognition. [20] Early team members included Suzee Han, Sean Braswell, Nancy King, and Samir Rao. [21] The company launched publicly in September 2013 as a daily digital magazine and newsletter. [22]

Funding and Growth

OZY raised a $5.3 million seed round of funding in December 2013 backed by Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of Emerson Collective. [23] Additional early investors included Axel Springer, [24] GSV Capital, [25] and Ron Conway.and Ron Conway. [26] Powell Jobs became a board member. [11]

In October 2014, OZY announced that German media giant Axel Springer had invested $20 million in the company. [27] In January 2017, OZY announced a $10 million Series B round of fundraising, led by GSV Capital. [28] In November 2019 OZY announced a Series C round of $35 million, led by businessman Marc Lasry. [29] OZY also received funding from the Ford Foundation. [30]

Throughout this period, OZY expanded into a multi-platform media organization, producing newsletters, longform digital features, video series, television programs, podcasts, national festivals, and awards programs. [31] Peak internal valuations cited in investor materials and media reporting exceeded $2 billion. [32]

In January 2021, Watson stated that the company had reached profitability for the first time, reporting $50 million in revenue for 2020, though some media outlets disputed these claims. [33] [34] The company also disclosed that it had received acquisition offers from unnamed media companies. [33]

Following the fraud allegations in September 2021, several advertising partners ended their relationships with the company. WPP's GroupM, which handles media buying for clients including Ford Motor, Unilever, and IBM, terminated its agreement with OZY Media. [35]

Partnerships

From OZY's launch in September 2013 until the summer of 2014, Watson (or sometimes authors of recent articles in OZY) appeared in a weekly installment of NPR's All Things Considered called "The New and the Next," in which he would lay forth on "People, places and trends on the horizon" appearing in OZY articles. [36]

In 2014, the company announced a content syndication partnership with National Geographic . [37] In 2015, OZY had a newsletter partnership with The New York Times and Wired. OZY claimed that these partnerships helped the company secure a number of new newsletter subscribers. [38] However, former employees later alleged that the company misrepresented the scope of these partnerships and used questionable tactics to build its newsletter subscriber base. [39] [40]

In 2018, OZY announced a multiyear partnership with iHeartMedia to co-produce podcasts and feature OZY content on iHeartMedia's morning shows across 150 U.S. markets. [41]

In 2019, OZY produced a television show that aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network and won an Emmy for Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis. [42] That same year, the company produced a show for PBS that won an Imagen award for Best Informational Program. [43]

By 2020, OZY's early identification of talent was highlighted when Amanda Gorman, a 2017 OZY Genius Award recipient, delivered a poem at the U.S. presidential inauguration in January 2021. [44]

In 2021, the company co-created a podcast with the BBC. [45] It had 33 episodes, the last of which aired in April 2021. [46] OZY also partnered with Lifetime, The History Channel, and with the History Channel's channel's parent company A&E Networks. [47]

In March 2021, OZY announced a multi-year partnership with Dentsu focused on millennial and Gen Z consumers, [48] as well as an advertising partnership with WPP. Both partnerships were terminated following the fraud allegations in September 2021. [49]

Products and Programming

Alternate Ozy logo related to some of their endeavors, a "ZY" enclosed in an "O" Ozy Media logo.svg
Alternate Ozy logo related to some of their endeavors, a "ZY" enclosed in an "O"

Newsletter and Digital

OZY launched multiple daily and weekly newsletters, including the Presidential Daily Brief (a morning global news briefing), Daily Dose (culture, ideas, and trends), and The Sunday Magazine (longform weekend features). [50] These newsletters reached millions of subscribers at their peak. [51]

OZY's digital magazine focused on profiles of rising stars and emerging trends. [20] [52] The company instructed reporters to cover topics not already featured by mainstream media outlets, resulting in coverage of niche subjects. [53] [52]

In 2017, OZY reporters visited all 50 U.S. states for a project called "States of the Nation." The year after that, OZY produced a series called "Around the World" in which they committed to report on three stories in every country. CNN reported that both series were largely delivered as promised. [54] [55]

Television

OZY produced over a dozen television and streaming series. In 2016, its first television series, The Contenders: 16 for '16, aired on PBS. [56] The company later produced three additional series for PBS: The Third Rail with OZY, Breaking Big, and Take on America.Breaking Big won the 2019 Imagen Award for Best Informational Program. [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62]

The four-part show Black Women OWN the Conversation aired in August and September 2019 on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The episode "Motherhood" won the Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis award at the 41st News & Documentary Emmy Awards in 2020. [7] [63] The show featured conversations with an audience of 100 black women. [64]

In January 2020, OZY announced a partnership with A&E Networks to co-produce additional television shows. [65] By September 2020, the number of titles announced under the partnership had grown to five, including Voices Magnified and Race and Resolution, [66] a dating show, and a re-editing of the company's first TV show, The Contenders, updated for the 2020 election. [47]

In July 2020, OZY announced The Carlos Watson Show , a daily talk show hosted by Watson featuring long-form interviews conducted via video call. The show premiered on YouTube in August 2020 and aired over 200 episodes across three seasons, later expanding to Amazon Prime Video in August 2021. [67] [68] Guests included Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Anthony Fauci, and Matthew McConaughey. An accompanying podcast was distributed through the iHeart Radio Podcast Network. [69] Brad Bessey, the show's executive producer, resigned shortly after being hired, later telling The New York Times that he had been misled to believe the show would air in prime time on A&E rather than YouTube. [70]

Podcasts

OZY produced several podcasts, beginning with history podcast The Thread in 2017, [71] an episode of which was featured as one of the 25 best podcasts of 2017 by The Guardian . [72] The company also produced a science and technology podcast The Future of X, [73] and OZY Confidential, an interview podcast. [74] as well as Flashback, a history podcast exploring unintended consequences of past events, [75] and When Katty Met Carlos, a BBC World Service co-production on American politics and society hosted by BBC journalist Katty Kay. [76]

OZY Fest

Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton (12996).jpg
Hillary Clinton
Actress Rose McGowan speaking at OZY Fest 2018. Rose McGowan (12750).jpg
Actress Rose McGowan speaking at OZY Fest 2018.

In 2016, OZY launched OZY Fest, a live festival blending music, ideas, comedy, politics, and food. Until 2018, it was held in Rumsey Playfield at Central Park in New York City. [77] CNBC described it as "New York's answer to SXSW." [9] The festival featured appearances from Malcolm Gladwell, will.i.am, Issa Rae, Katie Couric, Vice President Joe Biden, Samantha Bee, Hillary Clinton (interviewed by Laurene Powell Jobs), Hasan Minhaj, Mark Cuban, and Salman Rushdie. [78] [79] [80] [81] [82]

The name of OZY Fest sparked a trademark lawsuit from Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest in 2017. [83]

OZY Fest 2019 was canceled due to a heat wave. [84] Former employees later alleged that the company had been unprepared for the event and had inflated crowd projections. [85]

In 2021, OZY Fest aired a two-day virtual event to raise funds for the United Negro College Fund, featuring guests including Condoleezza Rice and Malcolm Gladwell. [86] [87]

OZY Genius Awards

Founded with PBS, the OZY Genius Awards provided funding and mentorship to college students pursuing breakthrough ideas since 2015, awarding recipients $10,000 to pursue a "genius idea." [88] [89] Among the 2017 winners was poet Amanda Gorman, who read The Hill We Climb at the inauguration of Joe Biden in 2021. [90]

Reception

At its September 2013 launch, Digiday described OZY as "a bet on serious journalism for millennials," noting its backing from Silicon Valley investors including Laurene Powell Jobs and Ron Conway, and its focus on longer-form content compared to other digital startups. [91] From its launch until summer 2014, OZY founder Carlos Watson appeared in a weekly segment on NPR's All Things Considered called "The New and the Next," discussing emerging trends and figures. [92] In 2015, Fortune described OZY as "the new media magnet for the news hungry," noting its focus on in-depth journalism aimed at millennial readers. [93]

OZY's editorial approach focused on profiling emerging figures, including politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom the publication featured a month before her upset primary victory in June 2018. [94]

Allegations of fraud and closure

On September 26, 2021, the New York Times reported that Samir Rao, COO and a co-founder of the company, had impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs. The meeting was an attempt to secure a $40 million investment. [11] Goldman Sachs contacted Google, YouTube's parent company, and confirmed that no YouTube executives participated in that call. As a result, Goldman Sachs did not go forward with the investment. Google referred the matter to federal law enforcement. [11] The New York Times report also discussed inflated traffic numbers, which BuzzFeed had reported on in 2017. [95] [11]

Following media coverage of Rao's impersonation, OZY's board of directors asked him to take a leave of absence and announced that they had engaged the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to undertake a review of the company's business practices. [96] Upon the company's relaunch, Watson said he doubted that the review would happen. [97] Elsewhere it was reported that the board members who had requested the review were no longer with the company. [98]

A number of prominent people and organizations distanced themselves from OZY following the publication of the Times article. Television journalist Katty Kay, who had joined just three months prior, resigned from OZY Media. SV Angel announced it would give up the shares it had acquired in OZY in 2012. A&E canceled the broadcast of a documentary it had produced with OZY. [99] [100] The company's chairman Marc Lasry resigned after three weeks on the job and said in a statement, "I believe that going forward OZY requires experience in areas like crisis management and investigations, where I do not have particular expertise." [101]

Shortly after the Times article was published, Sharon Osbourne responded to a request by CNBC to verify a statement OZY CEO Watson had made in a 2019 interview with them that Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, after having sued OZY over infringement on their Ozzfest brand, "decided to be friends and now they're investors in OZY." Osbourne denied that she or her husband had been investors, adding that during their legal battle she had declined shares in OZY that Watson offered her. [102] On October 4, 2021, Watson said that he had described the Osbournes as investors because they had been granted shares of stock in OZY as part of a legal settlement. [13]

On October 1, 2021, Watson, who had just been re-elected to a second three-year term as a corporate director of NPR, resigned immediately before a governance committee was planning to meet to determine his future. [103] The same day, OZY edited its website to remove Samir Rao's staff page. [104] The board announced the company's closure, saying, "It is therefore with the heaviest of hearts that we must announce today that we are closing Ozy's doors." A majority of the staff were laid off. [12] [105]

Relaunch

On October 4, 2021, Watson said that OZY would remain active. [13] In an interview on NBC's Today , he announced the company is open for business, saying, "This is our Lazarus moment, if you will." [13] The next day, LifeLine Legacy Holdings, a fund management company that invested more than $2 million, filed a lawsuit claiming OZY "engaged in fraudulent, deceptive and illegal conduct." [106] On June 13, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed LifeLine's lawsuit. [107]

Axios noted the company would continue to face multiple issues in its attempted recovery, including investigations by the U.S. federal government and by outside law firms. They also noted that it remained unclear how much cash OZY has on hand, and that the board of directors now includes only Watson and venture capitalist Michael Moe. [108] The publication was skeptical about Watson's claims, noting that it was unclear how many employees still worked at OZY and that OZY's team page still listed "many people who are long gone" from the company. [109]

Ron Conway, an early investor, was highly critical of Watson's decision to reopen. Conway said that he did not think the company should spend any money on a relaunch and that, instead, OZY should have used its remaining cash to pay two weeks' severance to about 75 former OZY employees. [98] Conway subsequently surrendered his shares in OZY and hired law firm Wilson Sonsini to represent the ex-employees in a suit against the company. In late November 2021, OZY reached a severance settlement with most of its former full-time employees. It included final paychecks, requested reimbursements, accrued but unused PTO, and other owed wages such as commissions. [109]

On November 2021, it was reported that the Justice Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had opened investigations into the company. Watson confirmed that he had heard from the SEC. [110]

In February 2022, Watson tweeted a link to an article that quoted him at length and that described the future vision of "OZY 2.0" without mentioning any of the controversies that had led to the original OZY's closure. Vice World News observed that the article's author, "a journalist with the suspicious name of Hugh Grant", was depicted with a stock photograph. Tech Bullion, the news site that ran the Ozy 2.0 article, charged money for publishing articles, according to a reporter at The Information. Watson deleted his original tweet and followed up by tweeting, "I gave an interview. Shared all of the exciting things happening at OZY. I had the expectation the interview would be published in a mainstream business news outlet. It wasn't and the author used a pseudonym. The content is all true. Great content, wrong delivery." The Tech Bullion article has since been deleted. [111]

Fraud charges and second closure

On February 23, 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that multiple OZY executives had been charged with fraud. Samir Rao pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Suzee Han, OZY's former chief of staff, pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy charges on February 14, and told a magistrate judge that she falsified financial information about the company at the direction of two unidentified executives. Carlos Watson was arrested and pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. Rao, Watson, and OZY also face a civil lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which alleges that the executives and the company lied to investors. [112]

On March 1, 2023, OZY posted on its Twitter account, "In light of its current operational and legal challenges, the OZY board has determined that it's in the best interests of its stakeholders to suspend operations immediately." The company's web site became unreachable on the same day. [113]

Conviction

On July 16, 2024, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York convicted OZY Media and OZY founder Carlos Watson of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Watson faces up to 37 years in prison. Two other OZY executives, co-founder Samir Rao and chief of staff Suzee Han, had pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution at trial. The 2021 meeting with potential investors, where Rao had impersonated a YouTube executive, figured prominently in the case. [14] [114] [115]

In December 2024, Watson was sentenced to 116 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $96 million in restitution and forfeiture. [116] On March 28, 2025, hours before Watson was due to surrender to federal prison, President Donald Trump commuted his sentence. Trump also commuted OZY Media's sentence of one year of probation. [117] In September 2025, the SEC dismissed its civil fraud case against both Watson and OZY Media. [118] [119]

Commentary and criticism

The case attracted commentary from various sources. David Robinson, a professor at Duke University, published an analysis critical of aspects of the proceedings. [120] Brian O'Connor of the Bay State Banner wrote legal analysis examining alleged inequities surrounding the trial. [121] Filmmaker Candice Conley released The Troubling Case of Carlos Watson (2024–2025), a documentary that raises questions about the proceedings, including allegations of undisclosed financial ties between Judge Komitee and some of the victims. [122]

The reporting that initiated the scandal also drew scrutiny. Slate and FAIR raised questions about potential conflicts of interest involving New York Times reporter Ben Smith, who broke the original story, noting his financial ties to competitors in the digital media space. [123] [124]

Organization

OZY was headquartered in Mountain View, California, with an additional office in New York City. [125] At its peak, the company employed roughly 75 people to create articles, videos, podcasts, and newsletters. [126] Axios described OZY as one of the few U.S. digital media companies that was founded and run by a person of color. [127] CEO Watson said, "More than half of our company is people of color, more than half of our leadership team is female." [33] The Ford Foundation, seeking to support a minority-led company, provided grants to OZY. [128] Early investors included Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective, venture capitalist Ron Conway, Google chief legal officer David Drummond, Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig, and attorney Larry Sonsini of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. [129] Powell Jobs served on the board until 2017. [130] German media giant Axel Springer invested $20 million in 2014, and Marc Lasry led a $35 million Series C round in 2019. [33]

References

  1. ↑ "OpenCorporates — US CA 3520298". OpenCorporates. Retrieved December 7, 2025.
  2. ↑ "Ozy Media and Its Founder Carlos Watson Indicted in a Years-Long Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme". U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York. February 23, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2025.
  3. ↑ Shontell, Alyson (September 16, 2013). "Former MSNBC Anchor Launches Ozy, A Fresh News Site With Money From Laurene Powell Jobs". BusinessInsider.com. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  4. ↑ Spangler, Todd (January 24, 2017). "Digital News Startup Ozy Media Raises $10 Million to Expand Video Team, Hire More Journalists". Variety.
  5. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (October 14, 2020). "Carlos Watson Talks Building Ozy Media: 'We're Trying to Reinvent News'". Variety. Retrieved December 4, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Interview mit OZY-Gründer Carlos Watson: 'New York Times, Buzzfeed – und natürlich wir!'". RollingStone.de (in German). June 6, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  7. 1 2 Schneider, Michael (September 28, 2021). "Ozy CEO Carlos Watson Steps Down as Host of Documentary Emmy Awards Following Controversial Report". Variety. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  8. ↑ Verdier, Hannah (December 27, 2017). "From Dirty John to S-Town: the 25 best podcast episodes of 2017". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  9. 1 2 "3 traits truly successful people share, according to serial entrepreneur Carlos Watson". CNBC. July 10, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2025.
  10. ↑ "OZY Gave Us Sneak Peeks At AOC, Trevor Noah, Amanda Gorman, And Issa Rae Before They Blew Up". CBS. May 27, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Smith, Ben (September 27, 2021). "Goldman Sachs, Ozy Media and a $40 Million Conference Call Gone Wrong". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 27, 2021. Laurene Powell Jobs, who had co-founded a college prep nonprofit with Mr. Watson in 1997, invested and joined the Ozy board
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  14. 1 2 Queen, Jack (July 16, 2024). "Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson convicted in New York fraud trial". Reuters. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  15. ↑ "Carlos Watson, Founder and Former CEO of Ozy Media Inc., Sentenced to 116 Months in Prison for Leading Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme". justice.gov. December 17, 2024.
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  20. 1 2 "About Us". OZY. Retrieved December 5, 2025.
  21. ↑ Maglio, Tony (September 27, 2021). "Ozy COO Samir Rao Takes Leave of Absence After Impersonating Google Exec". TheWrap. Retrieved December 5, 2025.
  22. ↑ Shontell, Alyson (September 16, 2013). "Former MSNBC Anchor Launches Ozy, A Fresh News Site With Money From Laurene Powell Jobs". Business Insider. Retrieved December 5, 2025.
  23. ↑ "Ozy Media raises $5.3M in seed round". Venture Capital Post. December 28, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  24. ↑ Yu, Roger. "Axel Springer invests $20M in startup Ozy". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  25. ↑ Alpert, Lukas I. (January 24, 2017). "Ozy Media Raises $10 Million to Expand Video, Events". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  26. ↑ Shontell, Alyson (September 16, 2013). "Former MSNBC Anchor Launches Ozy, A Fresh News Site With Money From Laurene Powell Jobs". Business Insider. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  27. ↑ Yu, Roger. "Axel Springer invests $20M in startup Ozy". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  28. ↑ Alpert, Lukas I. (January 24, 2017). "Ozy Media Raises $10 Million to Expand Video, Events". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  29. ↑ . "OZY Media makes a big bet on content". CNBC. November 1, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  30. ↑ "Goldman Sachs, Ozy Media and a $40 million conference call gone wrong". The Economic Times.
  31. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (November 1, 2019). "Ozy Media Raises $35 Million to Expand in TV, Podcasts and Live Events". Variety. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  32. ↑ "Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch LLP Files Lawsuit Against Ben Smith, Semafor and BuzzFeed on Behalf of OZY Media, Inc" (Press release). Business Wire. December 21, 2023. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  33. 1 2 3 4 Fischer, Sara (January 12, 2021). "OZY hits profitability on $50 million in revenue". Axios. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  34. ↑ "SEC Charges Ozy Media and its CEO Carlos Watson with Widespread Scheme to Defraud Investors". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 23, 2023. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  35. ↑ Steinberg, Brian (October 4, 2021). "Ozy Media May Have Worn Out Its Welcome With Media Buyers". Variety . Retrieved April 18, 2023.
  36. ↑ "Special Series: The New And The Next". NPR. May 31, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  37. ↑ "National Geographic Introduces Content Partnership with OZY Media" (Press release). National Geographic Press Room. October 7, 2014. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
  38. ↑ Bilton, Ricardo (February 17, 2016). "How Ozy leans on The New York Times and Wired to build its newsletter subscriptions". Digiday . Archived from the original on September 28, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2021. Since last July, the site has had co-branded newsletter partnership deals with Wired and The New York Times [...] OZY's co-branded emails feature articles from both its own site and its partner brand
  39. ↑ Fischer, Sara (October 2, 2021). "How OZY Fell". Axios. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
  40. ↑ McEvoy, Jemima. "Ex-Ozy Media Employees Say Company Used Dubious Tactics To Build Newsletter Following, Raising Legal Questions". Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  41. ↑ "iHeartMedia And OZY Media Announce A Multiyear, Multiplatform, Creative Partnership" (Press release). iHeartMedia. June 7, 2018. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  42. ↑ "Nominees Announced for the 41st Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards – The Emmys". theemmys.tv. August 6, 2020. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  43. ↑ Ramos, Dino-Ray (August 11, 2019). "Imagen Awards Winners: 'Pose', 'One Day At A Time', 'Monsters and Men' Among Honorees". Deadline. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  44. ↑ Blodgett, Sequoia (April 18, 2017). "Inauguration Poet: One 22-Year-Old's Journey From Special Needs to Acclaimed 'Genius'". Black Enterprise. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  45. ↑ Hays, Kali (September 23, 2020). "Katty Kay Launching First Podcast With BBC and Carlos Watson". WWD. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  46. ↑ "When Katty Met Carlos on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. April 30, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  47. 1 2 White, Peter (September 18, 2020). "OZY Media Moves into Scripted With 'Ripped From The Headlines' Drama at Lifetime". Deadline. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  48. ↑ "Dentsu Media Enters into A New Multiyear Partnership With OZY". March 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  49. ↑ Steinberg, Brian (October 4, 2021). "OZY Media May Have Worn Out Its Welcome With Media Buyers". Variety. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  50. ↑ "Ozy Launches 'The Weekender' Newsletter". MediaPost. August 24, 2018. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  51. ↑ Southern, Lucinda (February 22, 2016). "How Ozy leans on The New York Times and Wired to build its newsletter subscriptions". Digiday. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  52. 1 2 Benton, Joshua (September 28, 2021). "Ozy says it's great at discovering big names before the mainstream media. But is it?". Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  53. ↑ "OZY Media Continues Hiring Streak by Tapping Award-Winning Univision Journalist as New Deputy Editor" (Press release). PR Newswire. July 20, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  54. ↑ Grinapol, Corinne (January 18, 2017). "OZY Media Launches States of the Nation, a Yearlong Project to Cover All 50 States". Adweek. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
  55. ↑ Flynn, Kerry (September 30, 2021). "18-hour days and panic attacks: Former Ozy staffers allege an abusive environment". CNN. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  56. ↑ Castillo, Michelle (July 30, 2016). "OZY Media expands its empire to broadcast with PBS agreement". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  57. ↑ Ramos, Dino-Ray (August 11, 2019). "Imagen Awards Winners: 'Pose', 'One Day At A Time', 'Monsters and Men' Among Honorees". Deadline. Retrieved December 9, 2025.
  58. ↑ Castillo, Michelle (July 30, 2016). "OZY Media expands its empire to broadcast with PBS agreement". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  59. ↑ Dillon, Nancy (September 9, 2017). "New debate show 'Third Rail with OZY' to address contentious topics". nydailynews.com. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  60. ↑ "OZY Media Announces New Primetime Television Series, 'Take On America'". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). OZY Media. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  61. ↑ de Moraes, Lisa (May 9, 2018). "Trevor Noah To Kick Off OZY-Produced 'Breaking Big' Interview Series For PBS". Deadline. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  62. ↑ "Watch OZY's New TV Show, Breaking Big". OZY. Archived from the original on November 1, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
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