Condé Nast Pays Over $400,000 to Settle Firings of Three Journalists

Condé Nast paid three journalists more than $400,000 to settle a dispute over their dismissal last fall, the NewsGuild of New York said on Wednesday. The agreement reversed the firings so the employees could resign instead and included letters of recommendation. The journalists had worked at Bon Appétit, The New Yorker, and Condé Nast Entertainment.

The employees participated in a November march inside the company’s Manhattan headquarters to question executives about recent layoffs and organizational changes, including the folding of Teen Vogue into Vogue. A video posted by The Wrap showed the workers confronting chief people officer Stan Duncan about the decisions. Four employees were fired and five were suspended after the confrontation.

The suspended employees received back pay for each day of suspension and had the disciplinary actions removed from their records, the union said. One of the fired employees, Jasper Lo, a former senior fact checker at The New Yorker, said in a statement that the group had acted to resist what he described as inhumane treatment.

A fourth employee, Jake Lahut, who had been hired as a political writer for Wired, declined the settlement offer. The union said a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board on his behalf remains active. Lahut stated on social media that he had been offered four months of back pay and intended to pursue the matter in court.