Newsweek Editors Suddenly Fired

Ed Schinik, CFO, Yorkville Advisors

Another week, yet another major shakeup in mass media. CNN is reporting that Newsweek employees were recently told that editor-in-chief Bob Roe and executive editor Ken Li were fired, along with reporter Celeste Katz, who has recently written articles about financial troubles at the magazine.

Katz has not commented to the media about the firing but did tweet out a message to her supporters: “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!”

Li and Roe have been somewhat quiet about the news, confirming the firings but not saying much else. Newsweek, too, is not saying much, but there’s plenty of speculation going around. Some are saying there’s been a power vacuum at Newsweek since co-owner and chairman of Newsweek Media Group, Etienne Uzac, and his wife, Marion Kim, the company’s director of finance, both abruptly stepped down. Others are saying that was a harbinger of chaos to come. 

But perhaps the departure was not that mysterious. About a month before Uzac and Kim quit, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office raided Newsweek’s offices, removing several computer servers. Newsweek actually published a story, written primarily by Katz, that the DA’s raid was the culmination of an investigation into company finances. 

Katz and two other reporters contributed to a series of articles detailing the problems at Newsweek over the past months. Among these were stories about the sudden departure of Uzac and Kim, which were published about the same time as news came out regarding the sexual harassment allegations made against Newsweek chief content officer, Dayan Candappa. 

After the story about Candappa was broken by BuzzFeed, the company hired a firm to conduct an internal investigation. That, say people close to the situation, is when things began to unravel in earnest. Though others believe the issues are unrelated. 

At this point, the other two reporters who worked with Katz have not been fired. At least one has been told he will keep his job. But nothing is written in stone. What is clear, is that there are major problems at Newsweek, and it’s likely that there will be more drama before the smoke clears. 

One item of interest stems from another media report revealing an alleged connection between Newsweek Media Group and Olivet University. The Manhattan DA is reportedly looking into this connection, but a press release from Olivet claims there is no truth to the claim that the DA’s raid had anything to do with the university. 

At this point, a lot of people are tight-lipped, and at least one source is not being entirely truthful about what’s happening at one of the nation’s top news magazines. We will certainly continue to watch this story with interest.