Adam Klein, the owner of the now-defunct CMJ publication and CMJ music festival, has been ordered to pay half a million dollars to a group of former employees. The ruling, which was announced by U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Forrest on Friday, arrives about two years after the plaintiffs filed a collective lawsuit against Klein, CMJ Holdings, Klein, and his company Abaculi Media. The former staffers claimed they had not received compensation from October 2015 to the time they filed the complaint.
According to Pitchfork, the plaintiffs were awarded more than “$500,000 for unpaid wages, damages, and unreimbursed expenses, among other reasons.”
Representatives for CMJ have not commented on the ruling; however, the former employees’ attorney, Alex Granovsky, released the following statement to Pitchfork:
We have default judgment against Abaculi Media Inc. for all four plaintiffs, and final judgment of damages against Adam Klein individually as to three of the plaintiffs. We intend to prevail at trial on behalf of our fourth plaintiff and enforce judgment against all defendants, including Mr. Klein individually.
CMJ (College Media Journal) launched in 1978 as a bi-weekly trade publication that focused on college radio. Klein bought CMJ in 2014, and had regularly expressed his hope to recapture the company’s glory days; however, CMJ’s longstanding music festival and convention, CMJ Music Marathon, did return in 2016, despite Klein’s previous claims that the event was alive and well.
“CMJ will absolutely happen this year,” he told Pitchfork in 2016. “A little patience and a whole lot less wild and unsubstantiated speculation is what we need right now. CMJ will continue as an innovative force and a strong presence going forward. We’ll share more about our 2016 and 2017 program soon.”
CMJ stopped publishing its college radio charts last year. Its official website is also currently inactive.
