Condé Nast internship drama might finally be coming to a close, but not without leaving some serious damage in its wake.
Today, Condé CEO Chuck Townsend announced in a memo to employees, obtained by Capital New York, that the publisher is looking to settle a lawsuit brought by two former interns, Lauren Ballinger and Matthew Leib.
We believe that settling the lawsuit at this time is the right business decision for Condé Nast, ” wrote Townsend. ” The settlement will allow us to devote our time and resources towards developing meaningful, new opportunities to support up-and-coming talent. ” No further details of the settlement were provided.
Last June, Ballinger and Leib, former summer interns at W and The New Yorker, respectively, sued Condé Nast, claiming that they had been paid below minimum wage for their work. (The previous year, Hearst had been the target of a similar lawsuit brought by a former Harper’s Bazaar intern.) Four months later, Condé decided to shut down its internship program entirely.
* * *