The New Yorker’s archive editor says that she was fired after raising concerns about gender inequality at the magazine and publicly accusing its editor-in-chief of inserting errors into her articles.
Erin Overbey announced her firing in a Twitter thread on Monday. Her update came less than a week after she claimed she was put on a “performance review” after raising concerns about gender disparities at the magazine. She also alleged that “factual errors” that the outlet cited during her review were in fact inserted into her copy by David Remnick, the New Yorker’s editor-in-chief.
Overbey said she was considering filing a grievance with the paper’s union over her firing—and that she had the evidence to back her claims up.
ADVERTISEMENT
“[The New Yorker] is, in many ways, a wonderful institution,” Overbey wrote in her thread on Monday. “But it’s also ground zero for a kind of regressive literary gatekeeping, class exclusivity & old-school cultural thinking that simply no longer have any relation to, or frankly relevance in, the modern world as we know it.”
Overbey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Condé Nast spokesperson wrote in a statement: “The New Yorker prides itself on professionalism, accuracy, and adherence to the highest journalistic standards. False allegations that malign our journalistic integrity and that attack colleagues are inappropriate and unacceptable in our workplace.”
The saga began last week when Overbey launched a 40-tweet thread discussing her “performance review,” which she said came three days after she sent an email criticizing gender inequalities at the storied magazine. Over the course of the review, which started last month, she said, the magazine accused her of multiple factual inaccuracies in her weekly archive newsletter.
But the drama came in the thread’s climax after she accused Remnick of inserting two fact errors—one describing the magazine’s Fiction Issue, which is issued in the summer, as the “Summer Issue” and another misstating when famous writer Janet Malcolm died.
At the time, a spokesperson for the magazine called Overbey’s suggestion that Remnick may have deliberately inserted the errors into her copy while she was under review “absurd.”
Felicia Sonmez, who was fired from The Washington Post after publicly battling her employer over gender, pay, and social media inequities, said Overbey’s firing was “clear retaliation” for speaking up with valid concerns on racism and sexism.
“So many journalism institutions talk a big game on diversity and inclusion—but then punish employees for speaking the truth and asking for change,” she tweeted.
