Newsweek fires two more editors as turmoil escalates
Another week, another controversy roiling Newsweek.
Gersh Kuntzman — a veteran editor who had grilled the magazine’s owners at a town hall meeting about the Manhattan district attorney’s raid of Newsweek’s offices last month, reportedly over alleged ad fraud, IRS tax liens and ties to a California-based church — was fired Friday.
On Tuesday, national editor John Seeley was also let go, sources said. One insider said the bloodbath is not over in the wake of a stunning expose by Newsweek reporters and editors last week that detailed how Olivet University, a Bible college affiliated with Newsweek’s corporate parent, offered free ads to Dutchess County officials as it sought tax breaks and permits for a new university there.
“They’re thinning the herd,” said a source.
Since the DA’s raid Jan. 18, at least five people have been fired and another 12 resigned. In addition, five women quit when chief information officer Dayan Candappa was reinstated after being suspended when allegations about sexual harassment at a previous job surfaced.
“Here’s a thought,” Kuntzman tweeted four days after his axing. “Next time you fire an award-winning editor who built a career over 30 years, who clocks in an hour before you and clocks out an hour after you, and has two kids who need to eat, how about looking him in the eye when you do it rather than sacking him by phone?”
Seeley posted his own job-seeking tweet on Tuesday.
“Need a versatile, caring editor? Hit me up! I am looking for work,” tweeted Seely, who had helped launch the Wall Street Journal’s now-defunct Greater New York section before joining Newsweek two years ago.
Kuntzman, a veteran of The Post and the Daily News, jumped to Newsweek in September.
Kuntzman had grilled co-owner Johnathan Davis about the chaos engulfing the company several weeks after the Jan. 18 raid and a subsequent story in BuzzFeed saying the Newsweek Media Group and its predecessor company, IBT Media, were artificially juicing its ad traffic numbers using bots.
“[The raid] led to the BuzzFeed article about the fake clicks, which you orchestrated,” Kuntzman was quoted as saying by BuzzFeed, which said it had obtained a tape recording of the 90-minute town hall meeting.
“So you should be honest with everybody in this room: Are we running a money-laundering operation? Are we evading taxes? You need to tell us that because we can’t work here if you’re a liar.”
A story in the Wall Street Journal on Monday (paywall) said one thing that first piqued the DA’s interest was a series of loans taken out by the company from banks in the West and Midwest.
The DA’s office declined to comment. Sources said the raid came after a 17-month investigation by a grand jury.
The Post was the first to report that the probe was examining financial links between the university and Newsweek Media Group. The university has denied it is a financial backer of the company.