Adweek has appended the following note to its much-disputed article discussing the future business model of The Intercept:
Glenn Greenwald has posted several tweets today saying that there is no discussion of The Intercept becoming for-profit:
However, as noted in the original version of our article, it was not Greenwald who told Adweek that First Look Media could be shifting to for-profit status. That comment was emailed to Adweek from an FLM spokesperson and attributed to president John Temple. Asked specifically about The Intercept’s nonprofit status, Adweek was told in a Jan. 7 email, “First Look Media is nonprofit and The Intercept is part of FLM. The intent is to change it down the road.”
This afternoon, the following statement was received from FLM:
“The Intercept is non-profit and there are no plans to make it a commercial or for-profit publication. The team may start exploring a variety of ways to sustain itself, per Glenn Greenwald’s quote. But it is misleading to say FLM wants to move The Intercept from a non-profit to for-profit and that the focus will shift to revenue by the end of the year. Many non-profit organizations have earned income or revenue streams but remain non-profit entities.”
We have clarified this article’s subhead to reflect FLM’s updated statement.
The subhead, which originally read “Investigative site could drop its nonprofit status by year’s end,” now reads, “Investigative site looks for ways to generate revenue long-term.”
Earlier today, Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald publicly disputed the article’s contention that First Look Media was “looking to move from nonprofit to for-profit status.”
@davidfolkenflik @Adweek @the_intercept No – they got that completely wrong – check my timeline.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 12, 2015
Former First Look adviser Jay Rosen also weighed in, calling the article “confusing and thinly-informed.” He says the situation is still unclear.
@griner @BenMullin @ggreenwald @davidfolkenflik I doubt there's anyone who understands the situation after the original and this update.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) January 12, 2015
