 Dylan Howard |
American Media, which publishes titles including the National Enquirer, Men’s Journal and Us Weekly, says that chief content officer Dylan Howard has the company’s “full support” following what it calls “baseless” allegations of sexual misconduct.
An Associated Press report details a string of charges made against Howard by several former employees of the company. Included in the report are allegations that he forced women to watch or listen to pornographic material, encouraged employees to call him “Dildo,” openly discussed his sexual partners in the newsroom and suggested that one employee create a Facebook page for her vagina.
The behavior, which is said to have occurred while Howard was at the helm of the company's Los Angeles office, led to a 2012 inquiry by an outside consultant, after which former employees said he stopped working out of that office.
Cam Stracher, a lawyer for American Media, told AP that the inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing serious enough to justify disciplinary action or firing. AMI spokesman Jon Hammond said that “the investigation described an environment where employees mixed socially outside the office — sometimes at bars — but found no direct support for the allegations of harassment made by the two complainants."
While Howard resigned from the company in 2012, he was rehired and promoted one year later to a spot in American Media’s New York office. As CCO, he currently is the top editor at titles including the National Enquirer and Us Weekly.
American Media’s website says that the company’s publications have a combined total circulation of more than 2.3 million, reaching over 51 million consumers each month. The company acquired Us Weekly from Wenner Media in March, and has been suggested as a potential buyer for Time magazine.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
