This reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal what’s really going on inside the world’s most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
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It’s the kind of juicy tabloid story you’d expect to read about in the New York Post.
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The editor of the most famous gossip column in the country was under HR investigation over allegations of bullying and creating a toxic work environment and gets quietly booted from her plum gig after 13 years. And then she’s in talks with lawyers about taking legal action against her Rupert Murdoch-owned employer.
Except you won’t read about it in the Post because the editor in question is Emily Smith, the British journo who until Tuesday headed up Page Six. Smith had been probed by the Post’s HR earlier this year following several complaints from staffers, Confider has learned.
Five current and former Post staffers who spoke with us accused Smith, who succeeded the legendary Richard Johnson atop the column in 2009, of having become “unglued,” going “missing for days” and being “abusive” to colleagues. All members of the tabloid’s crack team of gossip-mongers were interviewed by HR as well as staff from other parts of the paper, including its copy desk, two people with knowledge of the investigation told Confider.
The findings of the weeks-long probe prompted Editor-in-Chief Keith Poole to yank Smith from her position last week and name her “editorial director” of Page Six, a title that several Post insiders suggested was likely made up just to punt her.
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In a highly curious Tuesday email to the newsroom, Poole, who is often touted as a “boy wonder” in Murdoch land, announced that Smith “will focus on landing the biggest scoops and interviews for The Post.” The memo noted that her long-suffering deputy Ian Mohr would now edit the column with Oliver Coleman as second-in-command.
By Wednesday morning, Smith’s name had been excised from the Page Six masthead.
Smith is “furious” with Poole’s decision and is in discussions with counsel about potential legal action, according to two people familiar with her thinking.
Former Page Six editor Johnson remarked on the current state of the gossip page: “It was more New York when I did it, and now it’s more Kardashians.”
A rep for the paper emailed us: “Emily was not ‘removed’ from her role. Emily and the Post leadership are very happy about her taking up her new position as Editorial Director, which was created specifically to give her the flexibility to pursue major stories and new opportunities at The Post.” Smith did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The moves on the gossip sheet came just weeks after the Post settled a bombshell sexual-harassment suit from former digital editor-in-chief Michelle Gotthelf for a hefty seven-figure sum, Confider has learned.
As star Post columnist Miranda Devine told Confider earlier this year: “There is never a dull minute at the New York Post.”
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