Latest in OZY Media

Ozy Media is not in Kansas anymore. Or in any other jurisdiction. The company has decided to cease operations, according to a Twitter post today. “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…

Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson was arrested and charged with fraud by federal investigators, according to multiple news reports. Prosecutors said in a court document that Watson had "engaged in a scheme to defraud Ozy's potential investors, potential acquirers, lenders and potential lenders" by…

In the first of what may well become a string of lawsuits against embattled Ozy Media, a fund manager that invested in the site accused it of fraud and asked for compensatory and punitive damages in a jury trial. LifeLine Legacy Holdings of Beverly Hills, Calif., which put more than $2 million into the company…

Embattled Ozy Media continues to make headlines as founder-CEO Carlo Watson told the Today show the company is not in fact shutting down as it had previously announced in the wake of a fast unfolding financial scandal where he had been conspicuously absent. Watson said he stayed quiet all last week as his company…

Embattled digital firm Ozy Media says it is shutting down, just days after a New York Times column exposed a range of dubious and even potentially criminal behavior by its executives. Since the column by Ben Smith was published online last Sunday, a drip-drip series of events has ensued, with board chairman Marc Lasry…

The heat on Ozy Media has been turned up a notch after its chairman, Marc Lasry, decided to step down from the digital company. The billionaire hedge-funder and co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks opted out in the wake of a damaging New York Times report about Ozy. He had just been named chairman last month, but the…

2ND UPDATE with Katty Kay resignation, 9:30 AM: Ozy Media’s star journalist, former BBC anchor Katty Kay, resigned from the embattled news site Wednesday, calling recent allegations surfaced in a New York Times story “serious and deeply troubling.” "I had recently joined the company after my long career at the BBC…

Ozy Studios inked development deals with three breakthrough transgender artists. They include Puerto Rican chef Paxx Caraballo Moll, Alabama-based activist Dan Eggers and model Rosalynne Montoya. Beginning as a digital magazine in 2013, Ozy has moved into podcasts, events and original TV series featured on A+E…

EXCLUSIVE: The Carlos Watson Show, which has been been broadcast on the OZY YouTube channel, is heading to Prime Video for its upcoming third season. After recently releasing its 200th episode, the daily talk show, hosted by OZY co-founder and CEO Watson, will be streaming episodes on both YouTube and Prime Video in…

Ozy has inked Jody Watley to a talent deal that includes a biopic on the Grammy-winning R&B singer-songwriter-producer. OZY and Watley have begun the search for writers to attach to the project. "When I heard Jody's story — one of overcoming the odds, of the power of positivity, of defying expectations — I knew it was…

EXCLUSIVE: OZY Media has tapped two executives and three executive producers to help expand OZY Studios’ development and production. Executives Allison Simmons and Matthew Vafiadis join OZY Media and will work under OZY Studios executive director and head of television Chris Rantamaki. Simmons, who joins OZY from BET…

EXCLUSIVE: Lifetime has given a green light to Torn From Her Arms, an original movie from Ozy Media, inspired by the separation of six-year-old Jimena Madrid from her mother at the U.S. border due to the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance family separation policy. The movie, which stems from Ozy Media’s development…