Bleacher Report parts ways with its CEO
Diversity issues prompt move
The media-wide reckoning with diversity and representation in newsrooms across the country erupted at Bleacher Report on Tuesday as CEO Howard Mittman left the digital sports media company after staff raised concerns about a lack of diversity there.
Bryan Graham, a content executive, also left the company, which is owned by Warner Media. Graham announced on Twitter that he was resigning.
“My intent was to disassociate myself from a company that has undervalued thoughtful, forward-thinking black employees for quite some time — particularly those in leadership,” Graham wrote in a tweet.
In an email to staff, Lenny Daniels, president of Turner Sports, wrote that plans to overhaul Bleacher Report were already in the works but “based on the many conversations I’ve had with B/R colleagues over the past few weeks, candidly, it’s accelerated the timeline. It’s become clear to me that significant change needs to occur now.”
A Turner spokesman described Mittman’s departure from the company as a parting of ways. Mittman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Daniels will take over responsibility for Bleacher Report.
Mittman, whose departure was first reported by the website Outkick the Coverage, was hired in 2017 after a stint as an executive at Condé Nast. He was promoted to CEO last year. His exit is the culmination of weeks of turmoil at Bleacher Report during which employees held virtual meetings with leadership, raising concerns about what they described as a toxic culture that valued a Black editorial voice but did not develop Black talent inside the company.
According to employees familiar with the chain of events, Mittman held an allhands meeting for employees as protests spread across the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
Many felt the initial meeting was perfunctory, with Mittman speaking in platitudes about needing to hire more diverse candidates, referencing his own Black friends and refusing to answer more than just a few questions from staff. Afterward, staffers delivered a petition with more than 250 signatures, demanding another all-hands meeting in which Mittman would have to answer staff questions. The petition was first reported by the New York Daily News.
Attended by Daniels, Mittman and a handful of other Bleacher Report executives — none of whom is Black — the meeting took place June 18 and lasted four hours. Staffers said the meeting was emotional at times, as employees spoke of a series of incidents that left them troubled by Mittman’s leadership.
One Black woman submitted a written comment, stating that Mittman had told a room full of sales staff, “I own you.” According to a transcript that was read to The Washington Post, Mittman said the phrase several times and the incident, according to the employee, was “incredibly uncomfortable and unsettling.”
Among the other concerns raised were a Black History Month project this year that was scheduled to follow Black athletes as they spoke about their careers to high school students, but was abruptly canceled.