New York Times hit with age, gender discrimination suit
The New York Times Co. and its chief revenue officer are being sued by a former ad executive with nine years of service for “age, gender and race” discrimination after she got a new boss.
Tracy Quitasol, a 51-year-old Asian-American woman, was let go in January 2014 by Meredith Levien, who was a high-profile hire from Forbes two years ago and is now the chief revenue officer of the NYT Co.
Quitasol had been heading the Idea Lab, designed to come up with new digital ad programs, and was the executive director of product marketing and ad platform innovation.
The most explosive claim in the suit is the allegation that Levien, in a downsizing that took place in September 2013, let go predominantly older and minority employees.
A Times spokeswoman pointed out the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has passed on taking action on Quitasol’s complaints and said, “We plan to mount a vigorous defense against this suit.”
On the personal front, Quitasol claims in the Manhattan federal court suit that her problems began when Levien — then the executive vice president of advertising — along with the company’s human resources department failed to curb a junior-level staffer who refused to follow her instructions.
Quitasol claims it was a case of “gender discrimination” by the male employee — who, the suit claims, would only respond to instructions from male superiors. She brought the problem to the attention of Levien and HR who, the suit alleges, failed to take action.
On the discrimination charge, the suit claims during “two off-site meetings attended by all the advertising vice presidents, HR officials and Quitasol in September 2013, Levien said she would evaluate employees on whether they were ‘fresh to their career’ and ‘whether they have a family, what’s their situation.’ ”
At the meetings, “photographs of each staff member were shown on a screen and Levien repeatedly said, ‘We want people to look like the people we are selling to,’ ” according to the suit, and asked questions clearly intended to determine their “age, marital status and whether they had a family.”
The suit claims that in September 2013, 30 employees were targeted for dismissal, mostly older and minority employees.
They were replaced “in virtually every case by a white employee under the age of 40,” the suit claims.
Regarding her problem employee, Quitasol said she “became the target of repeated and serious incidents of hostile push-back and insolent treatment from Fergal Carr, a junior technical programmer” who was working with Quitasol on a project for Goldman Sachs.
The suit claims that the situation got so out of hand that Quitasol often had to have other male executives relay directions to the employee.
The Goldman Sachs project ultimately was delayed, and Quitasol said it was largely due to her problem employee.
Carr did not return a call but was quoted as telling The Daily Caller, which first reported on the suit, that the claims “were news to me,” and he was “not at all worried about them.”
“Ms. Quitasol was terminated for cause, and The New York Times denies the malicious and false allegations that are contained in the complaint she filed in June,” a Times spokeswoman said.
Quitasol said that the hiring of Levien has not reversed the ad slide since the digital gains are not enough to outpace the print declines.
A Times spokeswoman said, “It is worth noting that The Times advertising department has experienced important and sustained gains in digital ad revenue under her leadership.”