Were it not for the breaking news that dropped yesterday from THE WRAP’s Josh Dickey, I would still have missed a story that originally dropped more than a month ago that I frankly found pretty intriguing. So my bad, Sharon Waxman, for overlooking the expose your Umberto Gonzalez offered on March 20th which kicked off with this intruging narrative:
Hassan Youssef is the classic rags-to-riches story. Born in Quebec, Canada, to immigrant Lebanese parents, he climbed his way to vast wealth by building a digital empire — first in porn, and now in entertainment news. The founder and CEO of Valnet, based in Montreal, owns Screen Rant, Collider, MovieWeb and the comic book news site CBR, which according to the company, collectively drives 260 million page views every month. Lately, Valnet has been seeking credibility in Hollywood, such as with a March 11 screening Q&A and red carpet event at The Grove in Los Angeles, featuring Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer in honor of “the launch of music divisions on Collider and ScreenRant,” as a press release noted. Collider founder and editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub was the moderator.
But there’s a wrinkle in this story of a bootstrapping entrepreneur. When Valnet takes over a fan site, the playbook is well established: employees are replaced by contractors, compensation plummets and writers who complain land on a blacklist that blocks them from working for Valnet sites altogether. TheWrap spoke to 15 current and former contributors who said Valnet routinely exploits and discards writers while prioritizing mass quantity over quality to churn out mind-numbing SEO bait.
Now one of those freelancers has filed a lawsuit claiming oppressive work conditions, and is seeking to establish a class action against Valnet. Daniel Quintiliano’s suit seeks $40,000 for violations including failing to pay minimum wage, overtime, provide meal or rest breaks and reimburse business expenses. The sum is unimpressive, but the prospect of extending this across a class of contractors has Valnet spooked — the company is now seeking signed releases from its contractors to not engage in any class action lawsuits against the company in exchange for $100 payment.
But Dickey’s story was about a far bigger lawsuit leveled against his publication for actually uploading those words:
Valnet, the digital media company that owns Screen Rant, Collider, CBR and MovieWeb, has sued TheWrap for $64.5 million in damages over an investigative article about the owner’s past ties to porn sites and “sweatshop” working conditions for its writers.
The Canadian company claims that the March 20 article… libeled the company and its CEO Hassan Youssef and engaged in unfair competition by harming a rival business, citing itself as a competitor to TheWrap.
The details of some of what Youssef and company have endured are almost as laughable as some of the ones I’ve been forced to deal with in my own world:
The article has also caused Youssef “tremendous emotional distress, affecting (among other things) his mood, temperament and his ability to sleep,” the lawsuit said, additionally claiming that TheWrap “exploited Valnet’s copyrighted photographs — without permission or justification — and included them as part of its smear job against Plaintiffs.” (The image used for the original investigative report can be viewed above.)
Damning, isn’t it? Sure looks like someone who’s sleep-deprived.
And besides that, THE WRAP is not a competitor to Valnet. They are a paywall-protected industry news site under a single banner that fight for a specific niche audience against the monolith of Penske Media brands (e.g. VARIETY!, DEADLINE, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) and more entrepreneurial, even more expensive efforts by elitist endorsers such as THE ANKLER and PUCK. Valnet is a content aggregator and has no paywalls. (It’s a major reason why I frequently reference some of their better-written articles in these musings, since I’m getting paid even less than “sweatshop” writers like Quintiliano). And the most recent data on THE WRAP reflects their battle being won in the neighborhood of 5.7 million monthly page views, with THE WRAP in a somewhat competitive silver medal slot at 3.4 million. So no, they’re most definitely not a competitor to Valnet.
Aggregating clicks from multiple sites is a tried-and-true digital strategy known as “roll-ups”. When I first began to receive reports from Comscore at the behest of my employer when the internet was nascent, they provided monthly Excel files where roll-ups were far and away at the top of those lists–some with some disturbingly explicit names. An awful lot of porn bubbled up in those rankings, making it more than uncomfortable for any sort of sizzle story that would attempt to show relative proportionate growth for a TV network site to actually use in presentations. As Gonzalez’s lengthy piece detailed, Youssef and his partners were very much in vogue in that era:
In 2003, while still students, foosball players Matt Keezer, Stephane Manos, Sam Youssef and his brother Hassan decided to get into the world of online porn. Together, they started their first websites, with names like Jugg World, Ass Listing, KeezMovies and XXX Rated Chicks…Their venture proved hugely profitable. The group rapidly expanded, creating their own affiliate network (Jugg Cash) and their own paysite, Brazzers — named after a private joke, a “throaty immigrant-Arabonics version of ‘brothers,’” according to the report.
I know more than a thing or two about Brazzers and I know their content creators don’t receive a penny from them. So it’s unsurprising that the business model that Valnet offers isn’t all that different.
Which brings us back to our miffed journalist Mr. Quintiliano–the one who felt his work merited the benefits of someone who’s actually employed by a site. His LinkedIn curiously has zero reference to his work with any Valnet entity–though it does list a stint of nearly two years with a company that I occasionally work for. He currently self-identifies as someone in “fraud prevention”, which I suppose is what encouraged him to file the suit in the first place.
Here’s two versions of the lead paragraph for a story which Mr. Quintiliano authored early in 2023 for MovieWeb:
A. Jared Bush, the visionary co-director of Encanto, had always been fascinated by the magic of storytelling. From his early days at Disney Animation to his work on Zootopia and Moana, he had a knack for weaving narratives that resonated with audiences worldwide. One evening, as he sat in his studio, surrounded by sketches and notes, he reflected on the journey of Encanto. The film had been a labor of love—a celebration of family, culture, and the unseen strengths within us all. Alongside Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith, Bush had helped craft the tale of the Madrigal family, each member blessed with a unique gift, except for Mirabel, who ultimately proved to be the heart of the story.
B. Encanto is a humorous and heartwarming tale set in the Colombian hills where the magical Madrigal family lives in harmony and peace. As a result of the death of her husband, Abuela Madrigal was blessed with a miracle, which magically gave rise to the town of Encanto. From that point forward, each member of the Madrigal family was given a unique skill used to protect not only them, but also the entire community as a whole. Except for Mirabel, who was supposedly given no powers, other relatives revealed abilities such as influencing the weather, changing their appearance, hearing precise sounds, and having incredible physical strength.
The alternative was spit out by Copilot minutes ago. See if you can correctly identify which had his byline. (Answer at the end of this musing).
I’m familiar enough with the works of other Valnet contributors to provide this with a barometer. I’d be hard-pressed to call Mr. Quintiliano’s work much more than acceptable–and, personally, I found Copilot’s version a bit more captivating.
It seems that his “demands” are in the same ballpark as many of the ones which writers and editors who contribute full-time to legacy publications continue to seek. We know how well those battles are going in this era. I’ll assume Mr. Quintiliano and his frustrated compadres know all about them.
So, pray tell, in what alternative universe did any of them think that any better treatment of them or, for that matter, the legal process, that are currently in vogue from the likes of Jeff Bezos, Patrick Soon-Chiong or, for that matter, Fat Orange Jesus would be forthcoming from one of the masterminds of Brazzers?
THE WRAP’s legal position on all of this is steadfast and supportive. As Dickey detailed, Mr. Gonzalez hasn’t much to worry about other than the relative obscurity of his work:
Robert Chapman, counsel for TheWrap, issued this statement, noting that Valnet has also sued the company in Canada: “Valnet Inc. and Hassan Youseff have now filed two inconsistent, contradictory and meritless lawsuits,” he stated. “In one lawsuit they sued the reporter, Umberto Gonzalez, claiming he caused harm, and in the other lawsuit Mr. Gonzalez is not named as a defendant at all. Fortunately, there are judges and juries who will sort out these blatant inconsistencies and reject these claims.”
Mr. Quintiliano’s work was seen a lot more often–with as massive a differential as we’ve documented, even when allowing for bots he’s got a pretty sizable advantage. If only his work was half as good as Mr. Gonzalez’s–or even that ever-prolific “reporter” with the initials A.I.– he might have had a shot to be his colleague.
Were I him, I wouldn’t have any greater level of expectations for that than for any respect or what he might classify as fair compensation to come from the likes of Hassan Youssef. Or, for that matter, anyone else remaining in what’s left of today’s journalism.
Until next time…
ANSWER: Mr. Quintiliano authored version B.