North American cannabis media in trouble

2019 has been a roller-coaster ride for cannabis companies in North America, from the pre-legalization bubble in Canada to the reality check The underlying theme this year has been that the excitement of joining the race for green gold is matched only by the slowness with which regulations are evolving.

Media covering cannabis news are no strangers to the need to make a profit. And as the year draws to a close, several media outlets are experiencing difficulties.

Civilized lays off staff ahead of takeover by New Frontier

Canadian cannabis lifestyle media Civilized has «temporarily» laid off its staff to allow for efficient restructuring and joined-up thinking when it is next acquired by cannabis industry analysis company New Frontier.

«The Civilized brand and the content generated to engage cannabis consumers, influencers and multinational brands is globally known and in line with what we expected. That said, in the course of our in-depth analysis, we identified areas for improvement.» declared Giadha Aguirre de Carcer, founder and CEO of New Frontier Data. «Civilized and New Frontier Data have agreed that, in order to enable an efficient and successful restructuring, we need to interrupt Civilized's day-to-day operations, with a temporary layoff of all staff. This will make things clearer to move forward and come introduce additional technologies and ultimately strengthen Civilized's ability to communicate and engage globally.»

Earlier this year, New Frontier acquired Zefyr, a high-tech platform for data analysis in emerging sectors. With Civilized, New Frontier moves closer to consumer data. New Frontier has announced that it is taking over Civilized with its financial «debts and liabilities». Civilized seems to have reached the end of its (at least) 5 million raised.

Civilized is scheduled to reopen in January. The company has offices in New Brunswick and California.

Massroots turns off the light

MassRoots, originally a social network designed to replace Facebook and Instagram for cannabis enthusiasts, simply shut down overnight.

MassRoots has had a complicated existence to date. Launched as a social network, the company has been forced to pivot several times, one time to blockchain, the other to a more dispensary-focused model, while its social platform struggled to generate profits. Since 2013, the company has burned several million dollars in cash in search of a profitable model.

In 2017, MassRoots CEO and founder Isaac Dietrich was ousted from his position at the head of the company by the board of directors, but had resumed his post two months later.

Interviewed by MJBizDaily, However, Isaac Dietrich maintains that the company is still in business. «Our website will be back online shortly,» Dietrich wrote. «We recently encountered some server problems that are currently being resolved.»

To date, the site has been inaccessible for 4 weeks.

High Times doubt

Hightimes Holding, which publishes High Times magazine, has warned its shareholders that it may not be able to continue as a going concern.

«Due to recurring operating losses, net operating cash deficits and an accumulated deficit, there is substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern for one year from the release of the financial statements,» the company said.

High Times has nevertheless sought to agglomerate skills, notably by acquiring Dope (11.2 million) or Green Rush Daily (7 million), and recurrently organizes the various High Times Cannabis Cups. It sought to finance itself in 2019 from private individuals, succeeding in raising over $15 million from 20,000 people. The company recently hired a new backer to extricate itself from its $105.2 million in debt.