Snap's head of editorial is leaving, becoming the third high-level employee on the content team to leave the company in the months after former employees came forward with accusations of racist editorial practices and company culture.
The head of editorial, Rachel Richardson, will be leaving Snap in January 2021, the company confirmed to Business Insider. As head of editorial, Richardson oversees day-to-day operations of Snap's editorial content and verticals, community stories, news, and international content.
The departure of a key content manager comes just a couple weeks after Snap concluded a five-month long internal investigation into allegations of racism and discrimination from former members of the editorial team. In a story from Mashable in June, former employees detailed incidents of a "whitewashed culture" and managers' actions to censor predominantly Black content on Snapchat's curated Stories feed.
Richardson is the third high-level leader on Snap's content team to leave in recent months. The content team lost two other manager-level employees in the last six months: Xana O'Neill, an executive producer leading news, and Liz Applegate, who managed Snap's entertainment vertical.
The departures of Richardson, O'Neill, and Applegate are just the latest in a tumultuous series of events for Snap's content side, which employees told Business Insider they think might not be over.
Business Insider reported on O'Neill's departure in June. Employees say Applegate quietly left in mid-November, around the time it was reported Snap wrapped up its internal investigation into racist behavior. Over the course of the investigation, a law firm hired by Snap reached out to some current and former employees to conduct interviews, and asked if they experienced or witnessed discrimination during their time at Snap and Snapchat.
In a statement to Business Insider, a Snap spokesperson said: "We recently concluded our investigation into allegations of potential racial bias raised by former employees from our content team. We did not find a widespread pattern of behavior across the broader content group, but there were findings that will help us as we work to build a more diverse and inclusive environment for all members on our content team."
The Mashable article in June forced Snap CEO Evan Spiegel to address concerns of racism at the company at a subsequent all-hands meeting. At the same meeting, Spiegel defended the company's decision to not release internal diversity numbers. In notes obtained by Business Insider, Spiegel told employees that releasing Snap's diversity data would reinforce the idea that minority groups are underrepresented in the tech industry.
A month after Business Insider reported on Spiegel's comments, Snap released its first-ever diversity report since it launched in 2011.
Aside from the investigation into its past practices, the wide-reaching content team at Snap is undergoing a massive restructuring, according to employees, and Snap said the company intends to hire at least one more high-level executive to direct content. Members of the content team were notified of the changes in an all-hands meeting in mid-November with Snap chief strategy officer Jared Grusd, Business Insider has learned.
The Snap spokesperson added: "Content has always been a critical component of Snapchat, and will be even more important going forward with the continued success and growth of Discover, our platform for premium content, and Spotlight, our just-launched entertainment platform. We recently announced some changes to best position our teams to support both platforms, our product strategy going forward, our premium content partners, and our creator community. In addition, we will hire a new Vice President of Content to oversee our growing content ecosystem."
Several former and current employees told Business Insider that Richardson was the most senior manager presiding over Snap's content, aside from the three executives at the top of the team: Sean Mills, director of content programming; Mike Dibenedetto, director of content strategy; and Vanessa Guthrie, director of original content.
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