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Evolve Media / Gorilla Nation / Crave has stopped paying

Discussion in 'Pay Per Click Advertising' started by Michael Ramses, Sep 27, 2016.

  1. #1
    I have been a publisher with Gorilla Nation for over 10 years. They were later bought out by Crave, and then again by Evolve Media. Gorilla Nation still retains its original brand.

    Up until 3 months ago, if you had asked me about Gorilla Nation, I would have highly praised the company. Great staff, great sales team, great fill rates, great CPM. However, payments started slowing down. I received April earnings (due by end of July) 4 weeks late. Currently I am still waiting for May earnings (due by end of August) and June earnings are now due.

    Is anyone else here with Evolve Media / Gorilla Nation / Crave, and are you experiencing similar payment issues?

    Thank you.
     
    Michael Ramses, Sep 27, 2016 IP
  2. RaZoRLeGaCy

    RaZoRLeGaCy Well-Known Member

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    #2
    I am having the same issues with them with the same exact months in question. PM/email me! michaelm.nyc @ gmail
     
    RaZoRLeGaCy, Sep 28, 2016 IP
  3. AML85

    AML85 Greenhorn

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    #3
    Same here :-(
     
    AML85, Oct 3, 2016 IP
  4. frightie

    frightie Greenhorn

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    #4
    I joined this site just to comment on this thread after I did a Google search to see if anyone else was experiencing delayed payments. They're two months behind on my payments (August & September), so I know the frustration, especially since the revenue I make off ads are all I do for a living.

    From what I understand, the company is notorious for having a high turnover rate within the staff, but apparently the head of Accounting left sometime in July/August, which led to payments to slow down. I've been told that the Accounting department in general is having a rough time now, so payments are REALLY slow. I believe they're still looking for someone to fill in the seat that was left vacant. I'm not even sure if people are getting paid at this point, since the last payment I received was early August. If people are getting paid it must be INCREDIBLY slow since it seems that they're months behind for all of us.

    I've tried to keep in contact with the Publishing Managers and all they ever tell me is "we're putting the pressure on in Accounting" and that they're merely messengers and can't really do much else. I've also been with the company for 13+years and this is the first time anything like this has happened, so I'm hoping this gets resolved soon, because generally they've been pretty good to me up until this point.

    If someone else has additional info on this matter or finally got paid then let us know! It'd be nice to hear that someone got paid, so we know payments are still going out and not just stalled entirely.
     
    frightie, Oct 4, 2016 IP
  5. Michael Ramses

    Michael Ramses Greenhorn

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    #5
    Gorilla Nation does have a high turnover rate. I can't count how many Publisher Services Managers I have had over the years. In just the past 3 months I have had 3. Some snipets from reviews on Glassdoor.com:

    Late paychecks, all the time. Employees often went without pay for weeks.
    Jan 8 2016

    Some employees have gone without pay for long periods of time. Dishonest owner tries to encourage hope that staff will stay till next paycheck comes.
    Oct 7 2014

    You can see this issue has spanned several years. Its seems that now publisher payments are also impacted. I don't think this issue is so simple as a department head left and now no one is getting paid. If this were the case it would be all hands on deck. The founders and every executive would be in there getting the work done. They know that the longer they go without paying publishers, the more publishers they will loose. It's a death spiral. More and more publishers leave, fewer ad impressions per day, less and less daily revenue. They won't be able to dig themselves out of the hole they are in.

    I also found something else interesting. One of Evolve Media's properties, AfterEllen.com, recently had a shakeup. They fired their editor and stop publishing new content. The website remains but it appears no new content will be published in the future. This happened around September 21st.

    TotallyHer claims they will continue to work with freelancers for new content. But to date none of the site's regular freelancers - myself included - have been contacted about continuing to write or even given notice about this abrupt editorial change.

    Sep 22 2016

    Finally, it doesn't appear payments have slowed, it appears they have stopped. I think Evolve Media in on the brink of insolvency. Publisher payments are now 2 months in arrears.
     
    Michael Ramses, Oct 4, 2016 IP
  6. frightie

    frightie Greenhorn

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    #6
    That's interesting, I looked more into the AfterEllen situation and it looks like Evolve purchased it in 2014 and sunk a lot of money into it; hoping to make it more profitable, but it failed to meet expectations. It must've been quite a hit for the company and makes me wonder if that's partially the cause for all of this.
     
    frightie, Oct 5, 2016 IP
  7. frightie

    frightie Greenhorn

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    #7
    Just thought I'd give you guys an update: finally got a payment from them yesterday. I thought they would combine all the missing payments together (which would make more sense), but apparently it's just for one missing month. So they're still behind one payment, but at least we know we're still getting paid. If you haven't received anything yet then I'd imagine it should be coming soon.
     
    frightie, Oct 8, 2016 IP
  8. Michael Ramses

    Michael Ramses Greenhorn

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    #8
    I received payment on Friday as well. Only one month, my earnings for May. June is still roughly 2 weeks late.
     
    Michael Ramses, Oct 9, 2016 IP
  9. 6mds

    6mds Greenhorn

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    #9
    I've been with Crave for a long time as well and have also been having problems getting paid. Back in early October, I received a double payment which paid me through May 2016's ads. My rep indicated that it was a temporary problem (I was suspicious but optimistic) because of staffing in the accounting department. My rep has now left the company and I'm getting worried as this is how I support myself and pay my part-timers.

    Has anyone heard anything? I'll have to dig out my contract but, by not paying me, I think they're violating our agreement. I've always had a great relationship but this doesn't feel good. I also can't afford to be out of the money they owe me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
     
    6mds, Dec 6, 2016 IP
  10. AML85

    AML85 Greenhorn

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    #10
    I am behind several payments. My situation is so bad last week they confirmed payment had been sent and I got nothing. Now they are saying they don't know when they will pay. It is so frustrating. I hate begging for my money!
     
    AML85, Dec 6, 2016 IP
  11. frightie

    frightie Greenhorn

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    #11
    I too received two seperate payments back in October, which caught them up a month and I assumed things were back to normal. However, I haven't received anything since and they're back to being two months behind. I contacted my Publishing Manager, who pretty much gave me the same basic answer I got the last time I asked a couple months ago:

    "I have reached multiple times to the accounting department and they tell me always the same. We have escalated this to the head of finance... Wish I could give you more optimistic words but the payments issue is beyond the reach of us the publisher managers, and we are doing everything we can to put pressure on 'em to get the payments flowing... But still, money deliveries are being sluggish. I will inform you immediately whenever I get something worthy."

    So it doesn't sound like much has changed. Everything else seems normal though, I'm still getting takeovers and serving ads, but I have no idea what is going on in accounting or why it's taking so long to get back to normal. A lot of it might have to do what was discussed in the earlier posts of this thread, about Evolve losing money with AfterEllen. Either way, I'm just as frustrated as everyone else. Anyway, if I get some kind of update I'll be sure to post it.
     
    frightie, Dec 6, 2016 IP
  12. Michael Ramses

    Michael Ramses Greenhorn

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    #12
    They are currently 2 months and 1 week behind on payments my payments. I am on NET 90 and they are behind on my July and August earnings. Since I started this thread they have never totally caught up on payments. They have been between 30 days and 67 days behind since June. A company doesn't have "staffing problems" for 6 months.

    They don't have the money to pay.
     
    Michael Ramses, Dec 6, 2016 IP
  13. TeflonDon

    TeflonDon Greenhorn

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    #13
    Did you remove them? Or did you keep them up thinking they'll get caught up eventually? I'm going on 5 months with no payments.
     
    TeflonDon, Dec 19, 2016 IP
  14. 6mds

    6mds Greenhorn

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    #14
    A couple weeks ago, I was assured my by rep and his boss that payments were going out by mid-December. It's the end of December and I haven't received anything yet.

    My contract expires in July and I won't be renewing it. Even if they get back up to speed, my trust in them is gone and there are plenty of other ad networks out there.

    I'm not sure if I can get out of my contract sooner without endangering the revenue they're still holding. It sure seems like they've violated our contract but need to talk to a lawyer to know for sure.
     
    6mds, Dec 27, 2016 IP
  15. Michael Ramses

    Michael Ramses Greenhorn

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    #15
    If your contract specifies either NET 60 or NET 90.. well... I'm not going to give legal advice, but you should be able to figure it out.

    There is also probably an arbitration clause.

    They did the same with me. I was promised payment on 3 different dates in December. All came and went.
     
    Michael Ramses, Dec 27, 2016 IP
  16. 6mds

    6mds Greenhorn

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    #16
    Thanks, Michael. Yeah, it does and that's the angle I was looking at.

    Anyone have any suggestions on who to replace them with? My site gets 3-5m pageviews a month. I work with Tribal and just signed up with Federated. Everyone talks big but it's hard to tell who's a big enough player to get campaigns to replace my Evolve income.
     
    6mds, Dec 27, 2016 IP
  17. TeflonDon

    TeflonDon Greenhorn

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    #17
    Sovrn, Amazon CPM those are my other two. Open to any more suggestions. I'm giving Gorilla until Mid Jan.
     
    TeflonDon, Dec 27, 2016 IP
  18. frightie

    frightie Greenhorn

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    #18
    Finding an alternative is the tricky part with so many companies out there; like others said, it's hard to determine who will really pay appropriately. It's partially why I've been so hesitate to leave, but my patience is wearing thin and it's starting to seem like they will never fully catch up on payments. For me, Google Adsense has been making up for some of the gap that's left by GNM's lack of payment, but of course it's nowhere near what we would normally make from campaigns. Hopefully someone else out there will have better luck.
     
    frightie, Dec 27, 2016 IP
  19. frightie

    frightie Greenhorn

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    #19
    Just wanted to give you guys an update that I received one month's payment earlier today. They're still one month's payment behind though, but at least money is still coming in. If you haven't gotten anything yet then I'd imagine you should soon. Hopefully another payment will come sometime in January.
     
    frightie, Dec 30, 2016 IP
  20. MenasheK

    MenasheK Greenhorn

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    #20
    Just wanted to add, we can also monetize other types of sites outside of the gaming niche: movies, entertainment, etc.
     
    MenasheK, Jan 17, 2017 IP