Categories: OLD Media Moves

Black Enterprise staffers upset about non-compete clause

Richard Prince of The Maynard Institute writes that employees of Black Enterprise magazine are resisting efforts to sign a non-compete clause.

Prince wrote, “Management’s efforts come after a number of departures from the magazine, including that of Tariq Muhammad, director of interactive media for BlackEnterprise.com, who in October was named director of AOL Black Voices, and of Tanisha Sykes, consumer affairs editor, who left to edit personal finance news at Essence magazine.

“Andrew P. Wadium, spokesman for the magazine, would not discuss the issue. ‘As you know, BE is a private family-owned company, and the employment records are confidential,’ he said.

“Non-editorial employees are said to have agreed to Graves’ request, but editorial staff members are said to be balking, and there has been no resolution, the sources said. Under such clauses, employees are not allowed to work for competing businesses for a specified amount of time after ending their employment at the company.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.