*Essence magazine has made the bombshell announcement that it was furloughing a number of staffers and only paying their salaries through the end of this week.
The publication said in a statement that it notified the impacted staffers on Tuesday and “will pay everyone impacted throughout this week and will cover their medical benefits premiums throughout the furlough.”
It is unclear how many staffers are affected. The furloughs are expected to last less than six months.
“After a thorough analysis of our business and its financial position and carefully exploring all options for continued viability, we have made the very difficult decision to implement temporary measures to account for the ongoing significant negative impact of the pandemic, including furloughs,” the company said. “While the business was able to prevent taking such measures during the initial onset of the pandemic via significant personal investments from ownership along with limited PPP funds, the prolonged situation and unforeseeable business now require us to take additional action to ensure the long-term sustainability of (Essence Communications, Inc.).”
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Bad news at @Essence. Their staff has been furloughed for at least six months.
It’s really unfortunate knowing there’s no relief bill passed by the Senate. https://t.co/qCHyx0mE9C #Essence #EssenceFest
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) September 30, 2020
The company announced the devastating impact of the coronavirus crisis in a statement on Wednesday.
“We will remain in touch with all of those impacted to provide relevant and pertinent updates regarding this matter as we have them,” the historic publication stated. “We do not anticipate that any furloughs will exceed six months.”
“We are confident that the actions we are taking now will help ensure that ESSENCE is here to thrive for another 50+ years as an independent Black-owned media business.”
News of the furloughs comes three months after Richelieu Dennis, the owner of ESSENCE, was cleared of workplace misconduct.
“Following anonymous accusations leveled in a June 28th blog post against ESSENCE and its owner and chair Richelieu Dennis, our company launched a comprehensive and independent review by the law firms Proskauer Rose and Morgan Lewis that included investigating claims of sexual harassment and other issues that may adversely impact workplace culture. This included outreach to the anonymous accusers and interviews with current and former employees,” the publication said in a statement in August.
“Today, we are providing an update on the review process and sharing the findings released by Proskauer Rose, led by partner Keisha-Ann Gray, concerning sexual harassment. The investigation concluded that that these claims are not substantiated,” the statement continued.
The magazine noted “ESSENCE takes these matters seriously and maintains a policy against sexual harassment, actively enforces such policy, and remains committed to ensuring a workplace free of sexual harassment.”
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