Last week, Chris Dore, editor-in-chief of News Corp-owned national paper The Australian, resigned after four years in the role, citing personal health issues. However, now The Sydney Morning Herald has reported he left due to making lewd comments towards a woman.
SMH reported that through anonymous sources, it had been discovered that while Dore was attending an event in California last month, he allegedly made inappropriate comments towards a woman who was also attending the event.
It is reported that Dore had been drinking when he made the alleged comments, and after they came to light, the senior executive team at News Corp agreed with Dore that he would stand down from his post.
Dore’s resignation was a shock because he has been widely praised for helping The Australian up its subscriber numbers. When he took the big gig, the masthead had around 136,000 subscribers, and in June this year, The Australian reported that it had now obtained 277,000 subscribers.
Dore had been the editor of 2018, and in a statement when leaving, he said it was because he was “exhausted!” And he had “recognised I couldn’t keep going on like this. I have long-standing personal health issues I need to resolve and am leaving News to concentrate on restoring my health.”
Michelle Gunn is now editing The Australian,