CJR Editor Sewell Chan Is Fired

Sewell Chan, the executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, was fired from the publication on Thursday after less than a year in the role, following staff complaints about his behavior, he confirmed Friday.

Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, told staff members in an email on Friday that Mr. Chan was “no longer with” CJR, a publication covering the media industry which the school has published since 1961.

“We are most grateful to the CJR staff for their resilience and dedication,” Mr. Cobb said in the email, which was viewed by The New York Times.

Mr. Chan, a well-known figure in journalism circles, started in the top role in September, after the job was vacant for almost a year. He was a former editor in chief of The Texas Tribune and held senior roles at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, as well as a number of board positions.

In a lengthy statement on Friday afternoon, Mr. Chan described his firing as “hasty, ill-considered and quite frankly baffling.” He said he had learned earlier this week of several staff complaints about his behavior and had offered to meet with the employees.

He acknowledged three “pointed interactions” in recent weeks with colleagues, but described them as “normal workplace interactions.”

“This is the same approach I took in leading The Texas Tribune and the Los Angeles Times editorial board and as an editor and reporter at The New York Times,” he said. “The norms at Columbia are apparently very different.”

Mr. Cobb declined to comment further when contacted by The Times because “it’s a personnel matter.”

In a separate email to CJR board members on Friday, Mr. Cobb and the board chair, Rebecca Blumenstein, president of editorial at NBC News, said Mr. Chan’s departure was “effective immediately.” The news shocked some members of the board, according to two people familiar with the matter. The board was preparing to convene for a regular meeting next week, which is still scheduled to take place, the people said.

Mr. Chan’s departure comes at an inopportune time for CJR. The magazine, which has been running under tight budgetary constraints, was beginning a fund-raising campaign, two people familiar with it said. Now, the magazine is without a permanent editor to spearhead that effort.

On Friday, Ravi Somaiya, a former editor at CJR, wrote a first-person essay in the Breaker Media newsletter describing a tense workplace relationship with Mr. Chan. Mr. Somaiya said he had messaged Mr. Chan about what he described as “hostility” to staff members.