Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)

Top gossip editor accused of sexual misconduct

- By Jake Pearson and Jeff Horwitz

NEW YORK » The top editor for the National Enquirer, Us Weekly and other major gossip publicatio­ns openly described his sexual partners in the newsroom, discussed female employees’ sex lives and forced women to watch or listen to pornograph­ic material, former employees told The Associated Press.

The behavior by Dylan Howard, currently the chief content officer of American Media Inc., occurred while he was running the company’s Los Angeles office, according to men and women who worked there. Howard’s self-proclaimed nickname was “Dildo,” a phallus-shaped sex toy, the former employees said. His conduct led to an internal inquiry in 2012 by an outside consultant, and former employees said he stopped working out of the L.A. office after the inquiry.

Howard quit soon after the report was completed, but the company rehired him one year later with a promotion that landed him in the company’s main office in New York. It was not clear whether Howard faced any discipline over the accusation­s. AP is not aware of any sexual harassment allegation­s involving Howard since he was rehired.

The AP spoke with 12 former employees who knew about the investigat­ion into Howard’s behavior, though not all were aware of every detail. The outside investigat­or hired to examine complaints about Howard’s behavior also confirmed to AP that he completed a report.

In a brief phone interview with the AP, Howard characteri­zed the ex-employees’ claims as “baseless.”

American Media said in a statement Tuesday evening that Howard “has the full support of AMI and its executives.” It said since Howard was rehired, “he has continued to have the respect of his peers and colleagues.”

A lawyer for American Media confirmed Tuesday that an outside investigat­or was hired to look into two employees’ claims about Howard’s behavior.

The lawyer, Cam Stracher, said the investigat­ion did not show serious wrongdoing. Stracher confirmed that one employee had complained that Howard said he wanted to create a Facebook account for her vagina, but Stracher said Howard said that never happened.

“It was determined that there was some what you would call as horsing around outside the office, going to bars and things that are not uncommon in the media business,” Stracher said, “but none of it rose to the level of harassment that would require terminatio­n.”

American Media publishes the National Enquirer, RadarOnlin­e, Star and other gossip publicatio­ns and websites. In March the company purchased the glossy Us Weekly magazine for a reported $100 million, significan­tly boosting its readership among women.

In his job, Howard oversees those newsrooms.

AMI spokesman Jon Hammond described the two employees who had formally complained about Howard’s alleged behavior as “disgruntle­d.”

“The investigat­ion described an environmen­t where employees mixed socially outside the office — sometimes at bars — but found no direct support for the allegation­s of harassment made by the two complainan­ts,” Hammond said in an email.

Most of the former employees spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclos­ure agreements, sometimes as part of severance packages.

Two former employees, one a senior manager and another a reporter in the L.A. office, agreed to be publicly identified to discuss Howard’s behavior.

“The behavior that Dylan displayed and the way he was and the way the company dealt with it — I just think that it has to be made public because it’s completely unacceptab­le,” said Maxine “Max” Page, a former senior editor at RadarOnlin­e. She complained to the human resources department about Howard’s behavior on behalf of two female reporters.

Howard made inappropri­ate comments to and about one of those women, Page and six other ex-employees said. Howard told employees in the newsroom he wanted to create a Facebook account on behalf of the woman’s vagina, commented on her sex life and forced her and other female employees to either watch or listen to graphic recordings of sex involving celebritie­s despite there being no profession­al rationale for doing so, they said.

 ?? BEBETO MATTHEWS—THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Maxine “Max” Page, a former senior editor at RadarOnlin­e, speaks to The Associated Press via a Skype, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, in New York. Page is among 12 former employees interviewe­d by the Associated Press, who said that Dylan Howard, a top editor...
BEBETO MATTHEWS—THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Maxine “Max” Page, a former senior editor at RadarOnlin­e, speaks to The Associated Press via a Skype, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, in New York. Page is among 12 former employees interviewe­d by the Associated Press, who said that Dylan Howard, a top editor...

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