Gossip editors face HR training after harassment allegations
NEW YORK — The company that publishes Us Weekly, the National Enquirer and other gossip publications is hiring outside human resources experts to train its managers in “sexual harassment prevention and sensitivity,” an internal email shows. This comes one week after The Associated Press revealed that the company’s top editor had twice been the subject of sexual misconduct investigations.
The decision, disclosed to employees of American Media Inc. in a companywide email Tuesday, follows AP reports that Dylan Howard, AMI’s chief content officer, had been accused by former employees of harassing female and male employees while he was a top editor at AMI in 2012 and subsequently at another employer. Howard has denied acting improperly.
“As you are aware, there have been a lot of articles regarding sexual harassment in workplaces throughout the United States,” Kenneth Slivken, the company’s top HR official, wrote to employees, according to a copy of the email obtained by AP.
Slivken’s email did not mention Howard by name. It reminded employees to “re-familiarize yourself” with the company’s harassment policies and encouraged them to report behaviour using an anonymous email hotline.