Newsweek Fires Editors and Reporter Who Investigated the Company
Bob Roe, the magazine’s editor in chief; Kenneth Li, its executive news director;
and Celeste Katz, a reporter, were dismissed after receiving Google Calendar invitations to meet with executives at Newsweek’s parent company, the Newsweek Media Group, three employees confirmed.
Two top editors and a reporter at Newsweek were fired on Monday, and two other reporters left in limbo, in a purge
that targeted employees involved in coverage of the company’s financial and legal troubles.
Two other reporters involved in the coverage — Josh Saul, a Newsweek writer,
and Josh Keefe, a writer at the affiliated International Business Times — were locked out of their computers and email accounts on Monday.
“It’s the installation of editors, not Li and Roe, who recklessly sought clicks at the expense of accuracy, retweets over fairness,
that leaves me most despondent not only for Newsweek but for other publications that don’t heed the lessons of this publication’s fall,” he wrote in the letter, which was addressed to Dev Pragad, the company’s chief executive
At first, two employees said, the company’s chief content officer, Dayan Candappa, protected
the reporters, essentially acting as a buffer between them and top executives.
Ms. Katz had reported on the company’s affairs, including a raid by the Manhattan
district attorney’s office last month, and Mr. Li had overseen the coverage.