According to an inside source at GlobalGrind.com, the Internet portal start-up is struggling to stay afloat.
Word is, Russell Simmons has either fired or lost half of his initial support staff, including Navarrow Wright and Kim Osorio (who went back to BET last year). “At this point, Russell is trying to save his investment,” said the source, who predicted GG “won’t be around next year.”
The source said Global Grind contributors and staff have not been paid, leading to disgruntled staff leaving comments on tech blogs. According to Angela Benton of BlackWeb2.0, Simmons recently took over the day-to-day operations of Global Grind as editor-in-chief from Wright after the two men disagreed loudly over how the opration should be run.
According to Benton, Simmons leveraged “his celeb contacts for content. In most cases to the detriment of the product.” Simmons also hired popular celebrity bloggers such as Necole Bitchie to write content for Global Grind.
Simmons is said to have sunk close to $5 million in investments into the property. Simmons’ brother Rev. Run also invested a considerable amount of his own money into Global Grind. He stressed over his decision to invest and leaned on his wife Justine for investment advice during an episode on his popular series of Run’s House last year.
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