Confab ‘not doing any media’

JAYMEE Messler, cofounder of the Players’ Tribune, proved she can be every bit as dull as retired Yankee great and current Marlins CEO Derek Jeter when it comes to answering questions about the site where media personalities provide first-person stories.

Speaking at Vanity Fair’s 2nd annual Founders Fair for women entrepreneurs on Thursday, she basically avoided answering any hard questions or disclosing anything of note about the venture created by her and Jeter in 2014.

Radhika Jones, the VF editor-inchief who presided over the conference — having taken over from Graydon Carter — made a point of saying the conference at Studio Space itself was on the record, but anything off stage was off the record, unless participants specifically agreed to go on the record.

During the onstage portion, Messler was pressed to dish a little by interviewer Tamron Hall, wondering if there were ever any instances when she had differences with her business partner, as inevitably happens in startups. While Jeter is often billed as the founder, it was Messler who first hatched the idea and got Jeter on board.

“Make a little news here,” Hall gently coaxed her.

Messler wasn’t biting. “I learned from the master,” she said of her amazing ability to say nothing of note.

Afterward, when Media Ink approached off stage, she was equally taciturn.

We asked her: What is the role for former Details Editor-in-Chief Dan Peres at the Players’ Tribune? Media Ink had already exclusively revealed that Peres, who helmed Details before Condé Nast pulled the plug, had recently joined as editorial director of Players’ Tribune. He replaced Gary Hoenig, who is now officially an “adviser.”

“We’re not doing any media to- day,” Messler said in response.

Since this is a financial conference, we asked her when she planned to move from the investment stage into profit-making. “Is this a financial conference?” Messler asked, turning to her p.r. person. She hinted during her talk that the site — which is still believed to be losing money — would have something new to announce soon. But she refused to pull back the curtain or hint what that might be.

In her Founders Fair talk, Katrina Lake, the CEO of Stitch Fix, was a little more voluble about the subscription-based personalized fashion attire catalog company that she started out of her apartment in 2011.

The company went public in 2017 and, as of Thursday, its stock closed at $23.86 a share, up 2.9 percent, with a market capitalization of $2.3 billion.

Asked about going public, she said, “Everyone speaks about the exit strategy, but it was more of a beginning.”

She said when she was in the venture funding stage, her plan was “either go public or go out of business.”

“It really is pathetic how little money is going to women entrepreneurs,” she said, citing statistics that show only 7 percent of VC money goes to female-owned businesses.

Consumer woe

Does Consumer Reports need a consumer watchdog? Or did it fall victim to “predatory” attorneys trying to score a quick settlement?

The not-for-profit watchdog organization reached a $16.3 million deal to settle a class-action lawsuit that originated in Michigan. It claimed the company sold personal information about its subscribers to list brokers without the consumers’ permission.

The suit was originally filed by Don Ruppel, who claims as a result of the sale of the subscription list, he is “being inundated with a barrage of unwanted junk mail and telephone solicitations.”

He claims the brokered list included the names and titles of magazines he subscribed to and other demographic information “such as gender, age, ethnicity, income, religion, parental status and political information,” according to the suit.

Other major publishers to be hit with lawsuits derived from Michigan state law included Hearst, Condé Nast, Time Inc. and Rodale. They all reached settlements of seven or eight figures in recent years. The tentative agreement, which still must be approved by a judge, also says lawyers for the plaintiff may seek to recover another $5.6 million in court and legal fees.

Not surprisingly, CR is angry. “Allegations about CR in the suit were misleading, unfounded, or untrue, and brought forward by opportunistic attorneys who understood that while CR did not hhave the resources to engage in extended litigation, we had the insurance coverage needed for them to reap a large settlement payout with substantial legal fees,” said a spokesman for CR. He said the $16.375 million settlement amount is covered by insurance. “That is, of course, no consolation for how the law failed a nonprofit whose mission is to prevent this very predatory behavior,” he said.