Chaos at Newsweek: Top editors suddenly out ..All Staff Sent Home...
Chaos at Newsweek: Top editors suddenly out
by Hadas Gold February 5, 2018: 9:38 PM ET
Employees at Newsweek have been told that editor-in-chief
Bob Roe and executive editor Ken Li have been fired, sources with knowledge of the
situation told CNN.
A reporter, Celeste Katz, who had written articles about
financial issues at the magazine as well as an investigation by the Manhattan
District Attorney's office into its parent company, Newsweek Media Group, was
also let go, the sources said.
Katz declined to comment to CNN but tweeted on Monday
afternoon, "My warmest thanks to the brave Newsweek editors and colleagues
who supported and shared in my work — especially our recent, difficult stories
about the magazine itself — before my dismissal today. I'll sleep well
tonight... and I'm looking for a job!"
Staff in Newsweek's New York offices were told they could
stop working and go home for the day on Monday afternoon, multiple sources
said.
"Can confirm I was fired. I know nothing else. Can
say nothing else yet," Roe told CNN in an email.
Li could not be reached for comment, though he tweeted,
"What a day to leave my charger at home."
A spokesman for Newsweek said the company would not have
any comment on personnel matters.
The news comes during a turbulent time for the magazine.
Just last week the co-owner and chairman of Newsweek Media Group, Etienne Uzac,
and his wife Marion Kim, who acted as the company's finance director, both
stepped down.
Last month the Manhattan District Attorney's office
raided the company's offices, taking several servers. Newsweek itself, in a
story co-written by Katz and Josh Saul, reported that the raid was part of a
long-running investigation into the company's finances.
Katz, Saul and IBT reporter Josh Keefe had all
contributed to articles about the turbulence at Newsweek in recent weeks,
including the resignations of Uzac and Kim. Katz had also reported on the
company's chief content officer, Dayan Candappa, who was placed on leave
following a BuzzFeed report into sexual harassment allegations that, BuzzFeed
said, had led to Candappa's departure from Reuters. Newsweek Media Group
subsequently hired an outside law firm to conduct an internal investigation.
Multiple sources said rumors were swirling in the newsroom
that Saul and Keefe had also been fired, and other media outlets reported that
they had been. But a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN that while
Keefe had his email account deactivated on Monday and was told to meet with
human resources, he was ultimately saved by an editor who stepped in to prevent
his firing. Saul, the same source said, is on vacation and thus far has not
been told that he's been fired.
A Newsweek spokesperson did not immediately respond to
questions about Keefe and Saul.
The New York Post, citing a source close to the company,
reported last month that the Manhattan DA's probe is focused on the financial
connection between former Newsweek Media Group executives and a Christian
college, Olivet University. Olivet said in a statement last month that it is
"inaccurate" to say there is a connection between the raid and the
university. Uzac, Kim and other Newsweek Media Group executives have direct
ties to the university.
Uzac co-founded International Business Times, which in
2013 bought Newsweek. In 2017 the company was rebranded as Newsweek Media
Group. Uzac's IBT co-founder, Jonathan Davis, is married to the president of
Olivet.
Multiple sources said staffers at Newsweek are worried
for their jobs and have started to reach out to their networks about other
employment possibilities. Some were drinking in the office. Katz received a
round of applause as she was escorted out of the newsroom, sources said.
Senior writer Matthew Cooper tendered his resignation on
Monday as a result of the chaos, saying in a resignation letter obtained by CNN
that he has never "seen more reckless leadership."
"It's the installation of editors, not Li and Roe,
who recklessly sought clicks at the expense of accuracy, retweets over
fairness, that leaves me most despondent not only for Newsweek but for other
publications that don't heed the lessons of this publication's fall,"
Cooper said in the letter.
In an internal staff memo obtained by CNN, Newsweek
announced that International Business Times Editor Nancy Cooper will take over
as acting editor of Newsweek. The company also announced that Davis is
returning to a day-to-day role at the company, becoming interim chief content
officer while Candappa is on leave. The memo also said, "The company will
not be commenting any further on these personnel changes at this time."
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