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“I truly cannot believe the girls are fighting like this,” a publicist friend texted my media group chat. “And by girls, I mean [adult] men in their 30s.” Indeed, media’s latest drama isn’t between Carrie and Natasha, Serena and Blair, or Truman Capote and his “Swans”—but content creator Evan Ross Katz and Cosmopolitan‘s entertainment director Maxwell Losgar.
Evan Ross Katz
The aforementioned feud came to light in a Tuesday e-mail blast, courtesy of Katz’s newsletter, Shut Up Evan. In a new entry “It Comes With The Territory, Doesn’t It?,” Katz discusses his experience with social media hatred directed at him and his content—which recirculates pop culture moments, magazine editorials, and interview quotes. Katz then shared his discovery that some journalistic colleagues and others have “liked” Tweets disparaging him online, ranging from petty complaints to threats—which, understandably, would get under anyone’s skin. And that brings us to Losgar.
During his recent honeymoon, one of Katz’s friends showed him a multi-Instagram Story post from Losgar—who Katz clarified had blocked him on the platform, preventing him from seeing them in the first place. In the Stories, Losgar stated, “Since Evan actually makes a living off social… how major would it be if magazines and studios and photographers started sending him cease and desists? Like… stop posting our work for profit. You aren’t a fan site. You’re ‘working.’ And you do not own the rights to these images.”
Losgar continued: “For context: Accounts like Evan’s are directly responsible for the declining traffic in publishing, despite people like him regularly profiting from our work. He never links back to the source (I’m talking an ACTUAL link to the articles he rips from, not just a ‘lensed by’ caption) and his viral posts wind up with more engagement than the media entities responsible for the actual bankrolling and creation of everything splashed across his profile. And his engagement unfortunately never leads to any measurable success for the media brands he’s stealing from because his followers have the attention span of goldfish and don’t seek out where it all originated from… they take it all for granted and move on. And on top of the blatant theft… there’s no actual POV. His quips are seldom clever. He’s either gaying out over pop divas or thirsting over hot men… There’s no clear sense of self. It’s very shallow because he’s not an arbiter, he’s a fan girl. And he’s hurting the industries he wouldn’t exist without.”
Despite the aggressive nature of Losgar’s words, Katz shared they’ve been in contact to meet in-person and have a discussion. Instead of only defending his own POV, Katz reflected on Losgar’s points, agreeing that his content typically veers the “fan” route and can amass higher engagement than its original source—which, though Katz doesn’t directly profit, could lead to potential future paid opportunities. Katz clarified that photographers and studios have found distribution through his page, but he’s always complied when media outlets request a post to be taken down—and, though he’s benefitted from sharing content he did not create, there’s room for change in the future as to how to share that content. And in a humorous conclusion, Katz wholeheartedly agreed with Losgar’s deeming him a “fan girl.”
However, Losgar’s claims that accounts like Katz’s cause declining media traffic is a larger issue that’s plagued the industry for years. In fact, it’s been a hot topic from 2023 going into 2024, as seen in media layoffs at i-D, Forbes, Refinery29, The Wall Street Journal, WWD, Footwear News, and more—as well as the closure of sites like Jezebel and Vice. In fact, Condé Nast’s union strikes and the initial agreement they reached before this year’s Met Gala is also a related occurrence. As Katz states, media’s relation to the public and traffic is a layered issue where numerous factors come into play: short attention spans, the fast pace of social media, the quality of media brands’ content, and more. In fact, it’s a conflict that’s constantly in development, and doesn’t have one clear solution—and is far greater than accounts like Katz’s.
Kim Kardashian attends the 2024 Met Gala (Courtesy of Maison Margiela)
However, a simple solution is to move forward with kindness. Larger media companies have faced backlash online from readers, fans, previous employees, and more sharing stories of conflicts, power abuse, and fallings out—especially where layoff proceedings are concerned. The nature of unstrategized statements like Losgar’s, which took aim at not just Katz but his following as well, are aggressive and not reflective of a path of progress.
One thing this writer knows is that Katz’s content and shared opinions don’t come from a place of malice. I’ve witnessed the positive effects of his page firsthand, where—following my search for freelance work this year—he was quick to share my post and tag me within minutes. I noticeably saw the ripple effect soon afterwards, from DM’s to other friends’ reposts. He took up a baton, and others followed—and it made a positive impact. Given this, it’s understandable to see how a media brand, celebrity, or project could positively benefit from similar exposure on a larger scale.
(Courtesy of Aaron Royce/Instagram)
In the interim, the conflict between Katz and Losgar is continuing. Following Katz’s newsletter, he shared a Story with the sentiment: “I had the bizarre but ultimately enlightening experience of watching a bunch of folks, some who I know personally, publicly deride me and my work followed by a stranger call into question me, my integrity and the intelligence of my followers. Not a typically overly sensitive person, or so I like to believe, I was caught off guard at how much this got to me.” This was followed by Stories re-sharing his 2024 Hollywood Reporter feature on his page, a tease of his next “fan girl” project, and photos of Teen Vogue‘s new shoot with Nicola Coughlan—plus a link to the story itself.
(Courtesy of Evan Ross Katz/Instagram)
Meanwhile, Losgar released a new series of since-deleted Stories claiming Katz hid Instagram Stories from him, resulting in an unfollowing, A shared text from Losgar also stated he sees Katz as being “PRESSED.” “I look forward to meeting him so we can talk like adults,” Losgar stated.
(Courtesy of Maxwell Losgar/Instagram)
Drama within the media industry often connects to circumstances at large. In 2021, for example, Alexi McCammond was appointed as EIC at Teen Vogue, which revealed past anti-Asian sentiments during a time where AAPI hate crimes rose, as well as the public responsibility of both individuals and media companies to issue responses and apologies. The Daily broke the news on that story. In this instance, the drama at hand stems from media’s overwhelming circumstances that are greater than just Katz or Losgar—but has, like cruel tweets or Instagram Stories, found its way into the discussion.
Hopefully, the two can settle their dispute like adults—and peacefully so, at that.
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