Wenner Media Pays You Not to Work There
WWD's towering inferno, Jeff Bercovici, gets his hands on Michael Caruso wrongful-termination suit against Wenner Media for today's paper, and he fleshes out the details of what the ousted Men's Journal editor is charging — and what he's demanding.
The 37-page complaint ... alleges Caruso's departure from Wenner Media last October was not voluntary but, rather, a firing motivated by, among other factors, age discrimination. (Caruso, who is 44, was replaced by 32-year-old Tom Foster, who allegedly told others Wenner had been looking for younger editors.) Under the terms of his employment agreement — attached to the complaint as Exhibit A — Caruso was entitled to his base salary of $400,000 for one year after termination, providing he was not dismissed for cause.... Finally, the complaint asks for compensatory damages of $1.5 million and punitive damages of $3 million.
We've always sort of wondered why people continue to go work for Jann Wenner, knowing that they'll most likely just be fired within a few years. But now that we know you get paid for a year after being fired, well, suddenly, it all makes sense.
