Participant, Maker of Films with Social Conscience, Calls It Quits

Writer Brooks Barnes reports on the closure of Participant Media, a production company that focused on social issue drama releases with partners, and successful documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth, The Cove, and RBG. Founder and financier of Participant, Jeff Skoll, decided to shut down the company, and Barnes conveys the many elements contributing to this conclusion, including the distribution changes in the industry and poor profit performance (though high social impact return). Most of Participant’s 100 employees will be immediately laid off and a small group will remain to release the films they had upcoming.