Jared Kushner’s Newspaper Lays Off 25% Of Staff, Including Loud Trump Critic
By Aiden Pink May 30, 2017
The New York Observer, the newspaper owned by White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, laid off a quarter of its editorial staff on Tuesday.
Among those let go was entertainment writer Dana Schwartz, a top web traffic driver who wrote an open letter to Kushner on the Observer website last year criticizing him for defending Trump from accusations of anti-Semitism. Three others were laid off from the 16-person staff.
Women’s Wear Daily reported in December that Kushner is looking to sell the paper, which he bought in 2006. The Observer announced in November that it was ceasing its print edition and moving to an online-only model, largely based on freelance contributions.
The news came less than a week after the resignation of editor-in-chief Ken Kurson, who was criticized for helping Kushner write President Trump’s speech at the 2016 AIPAC Policy Conference.
Joseph Meyer, Kushner’s brother-in-law who began working as publisher when Kushner entered the White House, “did little to reassure the staff,” Women’s Wear Daily reported Tuesday. They added that it was unclear whether the remaining editorial staffers would be retained.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink.
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