Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. Reports Fiscal Year 2016 Financial Results

NEW YORK, March 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc., (OTCQB: JMDA) (the "Company" or "Jerrick"), a digital media and technology company, today reported financial results for its full year and fourth quarter ended December 31, 2016.  2016 marked the year that Jerrick progressed from a development stage entity to a Company entering its commercialization phase through the launch of its patent-pending proprietary Vocal Platform (http://vocal.media) on November 30, 2016.

Key 2016 Business Highlights:

• Became a publicly traded company on February 5, 2016 to increase shareholder value, heighten public awareness of its business developments, and to create a completely transparent corporate culture;

• Completed the core software development and beta testing of its patent pending Vocal digital publishing platform in Q2 2016;

• Completed the migration of Jerrick's entire online media infrastructure from a conventional WordPress system to the robust Vocal platform. Vocal is designed to maximize scalability, speed, simplicity, adaptability, and create an unparalleled user experience - bridging media-rich long-form creative content and effective algorithmic monetization for content creators;

• Streamlined workforce during second half of 2016 through the automation of many of the Company's procedures and outsourced collaborative relationships with best of breed efforts;

• Established collaborative relationship with Australian-based thought-leadership agency, Thinkmill, to help support the innovation of Jerrick's proprietary software and the creation of next generation algorithms to enhance revenue opportunities;

• Entered into a marketing agreement with EBTH.com in Q4 2016, a premier online marketplace for estate sales and coveted collections, thereby eliminating the higher cost structure of Jerrick's in-house auction business and enhancing the profitability of this revenue stream (Guccione Collections);

• Validated a second of multiple potential revenue sources - pre-sold advertising with release of two in-studio developed digital web series - "Baked" and "Marijuana Minute";

• Commenced commercial launch of its Vocal platform (November 30, 2016) for six community sites – OMNI, Geeks, Longevity, Filthy, Potent, and Journal. An additional six sites have since been launched for a current total of 12 – Beat (December), Feast (December), Proof (January), Swamp (January), Humans (March) and Wander (March). Jerrick plans is to add another 20+ community sites during 2017;

• Updated provisional Patents concurrent with technology advancements – System and Method for Creating, Editing, Managing and Serving Web-Based Content (application number 62404735). Increased the number of trademarks and the size of its content library;

• Secured funding totaling approximately $2.5 million during 2016, through a mixture of demand notes, promissory notes and convertible notes, and issued an additional $1.1 million in convertible and promissory notes during Q1 2017; and,

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"2016 was a marquee year for Jerrick.  Early in the year we became a public Company and exited the year launching our Vocal platform, after having successfully passed all internal testing and beta phase hurdles to become a fully commercialized entity.  Jerrick's Vocal is a next-generation long-form publishing platform solving two critical issues faced by a growing number of creators who today, collectively generate over 3.5 million articles and blogs published daily – 'How do I get my voice heard?' and 'How do I get paid?' – exposure and compensation," commented Jeremy Frommer, co-founder and CEO of Jerrick Media.

"Jerrick offers a unique value proposition – a win-win credo to our content creators, our visitors, our customers and investors. Vocal partners with content creators and influencers by paying them at the high-end of a market-dictated per-view basis.  As posts go viral, the writer is capitalizing on the upside.  In addition, we provide creatives a highly sophisticated, quick, simple publishing platform that offers the most advanced rich-media tools and, importantly, provide at zero cost, search engine optimization for maximum audience exposure.  To our visitors, we offer an impressive experience of evergreen and timeless, well written, interesting content in a visually-organized and focused community setting.  To our advertisers and brands, we provide the means to efficiently target-market the most appropriate audience for their goods and services within our growing list of community sites.  Finally, to our shareholders, we have not only created a proprietary grass-roots platform written using next-generation code, that we believe is becoming increasingly more valuable by the day, but we have also created a highly profitable business model based upon digital arbitrage capable of supporting multiple revenue sources.  While we have only just begun the commercialization of our Vocal platform, we expect to scale revenue in 2017 and anticpate crossing over into profitable growth during 2018."

For the full year 2016, Jerrick reported net revenues of $224,000 compared to net revenue of $768,000 for the full year 2015.  The decrease in net revenue is primarily attributable to the Company's transitioning its ecommerce business from direct sale of products and Company owned memorabilia that provided support to working capital, as the Company readied the launch of its core business and commercialization of the Vocal platform.  Jerrick owns collectables (memorabilia) and several content libraries consisting of hundreds of thousands of pieces of digital images, artwork and written works from our Guccione Collections which includes items from iconic brands such as OMNI and Longevity Magazines.  Jerrick plans to continue to monetize this library over time to supplement working capital, while maintaining all copyrights, by holding periodic auctions during the year through EBTH.  With the initial sales price of items sold through EBTH averaging over $30 per item and expected to increase over time, Jerrick intends to progressively monetize this extensive library of more than 200,000 items over the next 5 to 10 years with the most valuable of properties to be sold in the final years.

In the second quarter of 2017, Jerrick expects to complete the next stage of development for its Vocal Platform, including an internal self-serving native ad server, expedited vertical creation, and accelerated SEO. The Company believes this will significantly increase revenue opportunities beginning in the second half of 2017 as it implements support for several additional revenue streams including affiliate advertising, branded content (in-house produced videos and articles), tipping, data mining, film development and e-commerce.

The Company reported a net loss of $(7.4) million or $(0.23) per basic share for the full year 2016, which included non-cash charges to interest expense of $3.3 million related to registration rights penalty provisions. Excluding the penalty interest charges, the Company's net loss was $(4.1) million or $0.13 per share.  This compares to a net loss of $(3.3) million or $(0.12) per basic share for the full year 2015, which included interest expense of $489,000.  Jerrick reported a loss from operations of $(3.7) million in 2016 versus a loss from operations of $(2.9) million in the prior year. The increase in net loss from operations is primarily attributable to a decrease in revenue and the increase in operating expenses associated with the development and launch of its Vocal platform and the Company's reverse acquisition of a public vehicle.

Jerrick's gross profit on revenue totaled approximately $181,000 in 2016, yielding an 81% gross margin, compared to a gross margin of 76% in the prior year.    As the Company begins to generate core operating revenues in the second quarter 2017, it expects gross margins to remain in excess of 70%.

Operating expenses in 2016 totaled $3.9 million, a $437,320 (11%) increase over the prior year due primarily to approximately $535,000 increase in expenses related to the development and launch of its Vocal platform, a $217,000 increase in employee compensation, and a $174,000 increase in professional fees related to the Company's reverse acquisition of a public vehicle, partially offset by a $488,000 decrease in stock-based compensation.  As Jerrick includes additional functionalities to further automate the Vocal platform, it plans to gradually install infrastructure, including personnel, that will support virtually unlimited scalability. 

The Company incurred other expenses in 2016 of $3.7 million, inclusive of $3.3 million in charges related to the previously discussed registration rights penalty provisions. The Company also incurred interest expenses of $153,000 on notes payable and debt discount of $211,198 during 2016.  This compares to an interest expense of $489,000 in 2015 which is comprised of interest expense of $475,481 on bridge loans that were converted into equity during 2015 and dividends of $13,244.

At December 31, 2016, the Company reported cash and cash equivalents of $175,000 and total assets of $378,000.  At December 31, 2016, the Company had current liabilities of $3.5 million of which, short term debt accounted for approximately $2.1 million compared to year-end 2015 current liabilities of $967,000 of which short term debt totaled $284,000.  The Company holds no long-term debt. Subsequent to year-end 2016, the Company raised approximately $1.1 million through the sale of additional promissory note.

On December 31, 2016, Jerrick had approximately 33.9 million shares of Common Stock outstanding.  Additionally, Jerrick had convertible preferred stock, stock options, warrants, and additional Common Stock reserved for issuance that would result in the issuance of 44.8 shares of Common Stock, generating approximately $4.8 million in additional capital for the Company.  As of December 31, 2016, the Company had federal and state tax loss carry forwards of approximately $5.6 million, which expire through the fiscal year ending December 31, 2035.

About Jerrick

Jerrick is a digital media content publishing house.  Core to Jerrick's unique capabilities is Vocal, a proprietary technology and content distribution platform, programmed to deliver a robust long-form, digital publishing platform organized into highly engaged niche-communities capable of hosting all forms of rich media content.  Vocal maximizes scalability, speed, simplicity, and adaptability to create an unparalleled user experience – algorithmically designed to bridge media-rich long-form creative content with effective monetization.  Each niche-community site is overseen by a dedicated team and culture, whose primary focus is on revenue conversion of all published material via digital arbitrage. All content is meant to challenge, inspire, and enlighten. For more information please visit https://jerrick.media. 

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements that are not historical facts and that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, indicated through the use of words or phrases such as "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimated," "intends," "plans," "believes" and "projects") may be forward-looking and may involve estimates and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. We caution that the factors described herein could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements we make and that investors should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of such factors. Further, we cannot assess the impact of each such factor on our results of operations or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. This press release is qualified in its entirety by the cautionary statements and risk factor disclosure contained in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

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SOURCE Jerrick Media Holdings Inc