TEXAS MONTHLY COMMENTS ON LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

AUSTIN, TEXAS—On Friday, April 11, 2014, Texas Monthly magazine filed suit in the Texas District Court located in Travis County against the New York Times for causing Texas Monthly’s editor, Jake Silverstein, to breach his employment agreement to accept employment with the Times. Despite having been previously informed that Texas Monthly and Mr. Silverstein were parties to an employment agreement and that Texas Monthly desired to reach an amicable agreement to terminate Mr. Silverstein’s contract, the Times refused to even participate in settlement discussions despite numerous attempts by Texas Monthly to do so. 

On Friday afternoon, prior to filing of the lawsuit, the Times reported its mistaken belief that Mr. Silverstein was the object of the lawsuit. Unfortunately, the incorrect assumption was picked up and treated as fact by a number of media outlets. As the complaint shows, the only parties to the lawsuit are Emmis Publishing, L.P., d/b/a Texas Monthly, and the New York Times Company.     

“Jake has done an exemplary job as the editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly since 2008. Despite our attempts to reach an amicable resolution with the Times to terminate our employment agreement with Jake, both before and after the announcement of his hiring, the Times has refused to even engage in negotiations with Texas MonthlyTexas Monthly and Emmis take our commitments seriously and expect others to do the same,” said Greg Loewen, the president of Emmis Publishing. Added Elynn J. Russell, the president of Texas Monthly, “Jake is a talented editor and has been a wonderful colleague at Texas Monthly, and we wish him the very best in his new position. But I am also very confident that our current editorial team, led by interim editor-in-chief Brian D. Sweany, will continue to live up to the high journalistic tradition of the magazine.” 

As the dispute is now a legal matter, any inquiries regarding the matter should be directed to kate@emmis.com

 

 

 

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