Cheddar, destination for young viewers, furloughs workers

Financial news network Cheddar placed at least some of its employees on unpaid leave Tuesday, the latest development for the startup that bills itself as a destination for younger viewers.

The news network put the affected workers on furlough, effective immediately, and banned employees from further work, according to an email sent to the employees.

“We would like to have given you more notice of this action, but the decision was necessitated by unforeseen internal and external factors that required rapid adjustments in our business strategy,” said the email, which was seen by The New York Times.

Altice USA, the cable company that owned Cheddar, announced last week that it had sold the network to Archetype, a media company owned by California investment firm Regent LP. Archetype’s holdings include a portfolio of titles focused on military history, including Army Times and Defense News, and sites including popular review platform Ratemyprofessors.

It was unclear how many employees at Cheddar were affected by the move. Representatives for Regent and Archetype did not respond to requests for comment.

Like many digital media startups, Cheddar has struggled in recent years amid a difficult market for online advertising. In June, Altice USA laid off anchors for some of Cheddar’s popular shows, along with much of their production staff.

Cheddar was among an ambitious crop of digital media companies that promised to embrace the internet and video streaming to disrupt their traditional counterparts. Its founder, Jon Steinberg, was a former senior executive at Buzzfeed who struck a series of deals to put Cheddar’s brand of chatty financial news programming in front of people no matter where they were — including at the gas pump.

Cheddar’s programming includes shows like “Stretching Your Dollar” — a live daily show from the New York Stock Exchange — and “Ready 4 Work,” a docuseries that follows job seekers trying to navigate the economy. One of Cheddar’s biggest scoops came in 2018, when the network reported that AT&T was planning to acquire online ads company Appnexus for about $2 billion.

Altice USA bought Cheddar — then a venture-backed media startup — for about $200 million in 2019.

Cheddar’s new parent company, Regent, has invested in media, technology, retail and consumer products, including the brands Club Monaco, Zulily and ebay. The company has acquired more than 30 businesses since 2015, and its portfolio companies employ more than 20,000 people globally.