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In cosmopolitan gatherings, staff complain of discrimination and tokenism. The previous staff said Hearst Magazines president Troy Young made offensive comments to his sexiest friends.
By Katie Robertson and Ben Smith
For decades, Hearst magazines have advised American women to behave at home (Good Housekeeping, Redbook), in society (Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country) and in the bedroom (Cosmopolitan).
This is the apple that includes Oprah Winfrey, director of O: The Oprah Magazine, which Hearst has helped direct since 2000; and Helen Gurley Brown, the revolutionary editor-in-chief who turned the cosmopolitan, once deciquily, into a woman consistent with the month who infuriated conservatives and feminists while selling at newsstands.
But as for the Hearst Tower in midtown Manhattan, the frontguy of Hearst Troy Young magazines attracted court cases from other Americans who said they made obscene and sexist comments at work. And in recent weeks, through the civil rights movement, current staff and beyond Cosmopolitan and some other Hearst women’s titles, Marie Claire, have spoken on social media and in meetings about what they describe as a toxic environment.
Young, a former advertising manager, joined Hearst in 2013 as the first virtual media chief. He temporarily replaced the design of the combined apple so that the publishers of the magnet sites would inform him, rather than the editors of individual publications. As a component of their plan, relatively low-wage virtual publishers have replaced high-priced veteran print publishers.
His paintings encouraged Steven R. Swartz, the executive leader of Hearst Communications, and Young succeeded David Carey as president of Hearst Magazines in 2018, winning the location of former magna editor and editor Joanna Coles.
The promotion came after no fewer than four employees complained about what they described as harassment or harassment of Mr. Young in the Huguy Resource Branch or senior officials, according to four former Hearst officials who spoke on anonymity because they feared retaliation.
An incident involving Mr. Young occurred during a vacation at Cosmopolitan’s workplace while he was the virtual manager, according to two other Americans present. Young picked up the sex toys that were sent to the magazine and asked if he could also reclassify them, other Americans said. Referring to the openings of two toys, he said he would “definitely prefer the biggest one,” other Americans said.
Young also sent pornography to a high-level Hearst editor, Jay Fielden, according to three other Americans familiar with the fact. Mr. Fielden complained to Mr. Carey, who then president of the division, other Americans said. Last May, Mr. Fielden left Hearst, where he was senior editor of Esquire and Town-Country. He declined to comment on the article.
At a world Christmas party in 2013, Mr. Young joined a collection in which a tender staff member described a bad date with a boy complaining about the smell of an ex-girlfriend. The woguy, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a delicate conversation, said Young told her that she had put her hands in and asked if she liked the smell. The woguy said she was surprised by her comment and walked away.
Two Esquire staff members witnessed the incident: Nate Hop agreed with an assistant editor at the time, and Ben Collins, an editor who is now an NBC reporter. Both showed the memories of the cosmopolitan staff member. “I think he violated the decency of what was otherwise a friendly conversation,” Hop said. “It’s something I’ve been enjoying at the time for a long time.”
Young, 52, responded to court cases of former Hearst staff in this article: “Explicit accusations raised through my critics are false, highly exaggerated, or out of context. The speed of progression of our activities and the strength of my commitment are ambitious, and I sincerely regret the negative consequences this has had on some in our organization”.
Regarding the party, he said in a separate statement: “Frank’s conversations about sex have explained Cosmo’s handover for decades, worked there have openly denied it. He did not respond to the other explicit accusations.
A spokesman for Hearst magazines said young’s years as a virtual boss, his “relentless quest for excellence was an instinctively better friend combined with an impetuous habit that led them in the wrong direction.” The spokesman added, “Since he was appointed president of the division, he has worked to expand a more inclusive style of control.”
As a component of Mr. Young’s watch review, Jessica Pels has Cosmopolitan’s youngest editor-in-chief in 2018. Previously, she had directed the virtual component of the magazine and was Marie Claire’s virtual manager. In recent weeks of protests against racism and police violence, Pels has faced staff demands for what they described as a culture of discrimination that has long been ignored.
Ms. Pels organized video meetings with staff after comments on social media posted last month through Jazmin Jones, who had worked with Ms. Pels as a video editor on Marie Claire. In an Instagram post, Jones, who is black, accused the compatriot of racial discrimination and said she felt no expediency in discussions about race in the application of communication between Slack services.
A screenshot of a slack verbal exposition published through Ms. Jones oversees an editor, whom she knew as Ms. Pels, commenting contemptuously about the hair and makeup of a colored staff member an appearance in front of the camera for a video of Marie Claire. Ms. Pels dismissed the Slack verbal statement with comments that she had committed a violation of huguy resources in filing the complaint.
In an interview, Ms. Jones, 30, said, “Hearst doesn’t care about you when you’re not a white woman like the apple.”
During a video conference last month for Cosmopolitan staff, a woman of color confronted Ms. Pels for being trained in assemblies she did not attend when film teams were present. She said her inclusion was evidence of the company’s departure and announces a false appearance of staff diversity, according to a recording of the assembly received through The Times.
Prachi Gupta, who covered Cosmopolitan’s policy during the 2016 presidential crusade before Ms. Pels became editor-in-chief, said she believed black and brown women “felt less than equal” in the company. “Because there were no women of color in leadership positions, I wasn’t able to seek recommendation or recommendation when I was led to careless positions,” she said.
In a Twitter message on June 6, Ms. Gupta, who is Indo-American, wrote: “From the beginning, I symbolized. A white PR user in Hearst told me that it would be undeniable for me to bok for media appearances because my lok is “very fashionable”, and it is transparent that she would like to say that I am not white.”
Ms. Jones and Ms. Gupta’s descriptions in their reports were collected through 10 former and current members of Hearst magazines in interperspectives with The Times.
In an assembly via videoconference, Ms. Pels apologized for her best friend. “I didn’t do enough to correctly write the imbalances,” he said, according to an audio recording of the assembly received through The Times.
In an article for this article, Ms. Pels said diversity was a “priority for my career.”
“At this crucial moment, my team and I have made genuine changes and have had deep, fair and passionate discussions about the progress to be made and the paintings I can make as a leader to actively facilitate them,” the statement said.
As editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, Pels conducted interperspecies with Democratic presidential applicants and published an essay on the Blos angelesck Lives Matter motion through Senator Kamalos Angeles Harris of California.
Hearst’s staff questioned the company leader at a time when the staff of his top glamorous rival, Condé Nast, did the same. There have also been riots in other media organizations, adding The Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wall Street Journal and Refinery29.
Last month, Hearst magazines named Samira Nasr, former fashion director at Vanity Fair, as lead editor of the US edition of Harper’s Bazaar. She is the first woguy of color to hang up the post. And Cosmopolitan has announced an initiative, “Cosmo Can Do Better,” which requires the hiring of more blacks and other Americans of color. As a component of the report, the mag published staff statistics, claiming that its workforce was made up of 29% black and other Americans of color, 61% of white employees, 10% of whom were not disclosed. Its leader included 21% of other Americans of color, according to the survey. A hearsman for Hearst said the compared apple is committed to diversity at all levels.
Michelle Ruiz, Cosmopolitan’s former editor-in-chief, said messages of inclusion and empowerment of Hearst’s publications were at odds with the apple’s leadership. She described a meeting with Mr. Young at the Hearst cafeteria who took position while very pregnant. “Then is the Bavia mine?” she said, as she recalled.
“For an Apple executive to say that he had impregnated me who was totally inappropriate,” said Ruiz, now Vogue.com’s editor-in-chief. “There is a real hypocrisy in raising this guy at the head of a giant apple populated through magazines that succeeded in empowering women on their front pages.”
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