Latina Media’s woes keep growing. It has apparently lost its last remaining co-president, Asten Morgan, and is facing a lawsuit from its top sales rep over unpaid wages, while its website has been dark for over two months.
Surprisingly, Solera Capital, the venture firm that owns Latina, has begun issuing checks to unpaid freelancers in recent weeks after facing pressure from the National Writers Union.
“We’ve collected about $43,800 for 13 freelancers,” said NWU President Larry Goldbetter. “There are more who have contacted us, and we will seek to get them paid as well.”
Solera Capital is a politically connected women-owned venture fund that counts Diana Taylor, the longtime gal pal of Michael Bloomberg, as vice chairman.
Calls and emails to Taylor and Solera CEO Molly Ashby were not returned by press time.
Morgan is the second co-president to walk away from the financially strapped media company.
“He’s been the point person for a lot of the angry calls, but he’s also owed a ton of money,” said one source close to Morgan.
Robyn Moreno, the other co-president, resigned in April, according to a Twitter post of hers.
Michelle Cortes, the former top sales rep who was making a non-commission base salary of nearly $100,000 a year, said in a federal lawsuit — filed in US Southern District Court in Manhattan against Latina and Solera — that she did not get paid from March 1 until she left on April 11. She had worked there since 2011.
The company’s website remains dead, saying only: “We’ll Be Back Soon!”