Mode Media Shuts Down, Leaving Many of Its Freelancers Unpaid

Company abruptly calls it quits after 12 years

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Just two years ago, Mode Media founder and chief executive Samir Arora described his Silicon Valley startup (formerly known as Glam Media) as "a pioneer of native advertising and content marketing" and boasted that after just 10 years, it had grown to become "the seventh largest U.S. media company, reaching 50 percent of the U.S. digital population."

Thursday evening, The Wall Street Journal reported the lifestyle content company once valued at $1 billion had ceased operations, leaving a network of content creator "partners" owed tens of thousands of dollars.

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