FOUR Bloomberg Ltd. staffers in an explosive lawsuit filed in federal district court in Trenton, N.J., claim they were victims of age discrimination at the news service founded and still owned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The company has made the mayor a billionaire, but the defendants claim it has caused them “loss of employment, monetary damages, great emotional pain, suffering and humiliation and mental distress and anguish,” according to the lawsuit that was quietly filed earlier this year.
One of the defendants, Al Bassano, a 63-year-old journalist, had been at the company since 1991 when Bloomberg purchased Petroleum Publications, Inc., an energy newsletter company founded by Bassano and another defendant, Vincent Sgro, also 63.
Bassano claims that the company’s news editors were dismissive of older workers – and that applied even when it came to the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
A Bloomberg spokeswoman insisted the company was blameless of age discrimination and blasted Bassano for trying to take advantage of the events of 9/11.
“For someone to try to twist the events of that morning for personal gain is contemptible,” she said.
In the suit, Bassano claims that on 9/11 he received a frantic cell phone call at 8:49 a.m. from his son who was standing in the lobby of the North Tower of the World Trade Center minutes after the first plane had struck.
Bassano said he had tried to alert one of the company’s top news editors in the Princeton office to the eyewitness who was on the line, but was ignored, claims the suit.
The first Bloomberg report on the plane crash was at 8:56 a.m. some 11 minutes after the first plane hit, and was attributed to another news source, Cable News Network.
Bassano said eventually another Bloomberg editor decided to connect his son live to Bloomberg Radio, where he provided 20 minutes of eyewitness accounts.
Bassano and one other defendant Ann Walker, who is said to be in her 50s, are still at the company but are currently out on disability leave.
One other woman, Vera Stek, who is also in her 50s, is also part of the suit. She said she also suffered sexual harassment in the workplace from a human resources staffer.
The suit claims the company permitted a “hostile work environment against plaintiffs based upon their age.”
“The claims don’t have any merit – we’re confident the courts will agree,” a Bloomberg spokeswoman said.
SHOOTING BLANKS
Has Hearst President Cathleen Black put a bullet in Bullet, a weekly lads magazine that the company was exploring?
The prototype editor, Keith Blanchard, a former editor of Maxim, has completed his work, which will now be placed on the back burner.
Blanchard got the bad news yesterday, sources said.
“He did a good job, but his work for Hearst is completed,” said a knowledgeable source.
The source also said the company was not going to press ahead with the project.
“It’s not for us,” said one well placed source.
TV GUIDE SHIFT
Kristen Kelch, who was news director at People magazine until late last year, is coming back into the celebrity game as news editor of the soon-to-be revamped TV Guide.
The magazine, which is partially owned by News Corp., which owns The Post, is jumping from digest to standard-sized magazine in October.
Kelch, a veteran of the old New York Newsday until it closed, had been with People for over nine years but left in a management restructuring by Managing Editor Martha Nelson late last year.
“I got a lot of pointers from her that I’ll use in my new job,” Kelch said. She starts Monday.
TV Guide Editor in Chief Ian Birch said the move is intended to take advantage of the new tighter deadline at the weekly.
In the past, the listing-packed guide had a three-week lead time. Now with only one national edition and trimmed-back listings, there is a three-day deadline.
“The idea is to take advantage of our ability to close on a Monday afternoon with a story that will be on newsstands on Thursday.”
JANE FADING
Jane Pratt, the founder of Jane magazine, is not expected to be there Monday when Brandon Holley starts her new job as its editor-in-chief.
Insiders say there is some sign of a little behind-the-scenes tension between the two.
Fairchild is working hard to put a good face on the transition, tossing a staff party at the bar Shenanigans. It’s also hyping the new editor with ads about Holley’s background in Fairchild-owned Woman’s Wear Daily that highlight her background as a surfer, drag racer, power player (in a good way). “So Jane?,” asks the ad. “Check. Welcome Brandon Holley, Jane editor-in-chief. She’s so Jane.”
Meanwhile, although Holley said she’d welcome occasional input from the founding editor, terms of that role have yet to be finalized.
Over at Holley’s previous employer, Elle Girl, the executive editor, Christina Kelly, was elevated to the top of the magazine.
Ironically, Kelly (no relation to Media Ink’s Keith Kelly, but a member of the city’s Kelly Gang) remains a close friend of Pratt’s.
Kelly was the first person that Pratt hired when she was running teen magazine Sassy and they’ve remained close ever since.
Her mandate is to continue the circulation and advertising momentum that the teen title has built up in a fiercely competitive field – and to find a new executive editor to replace herself.