In an interview yesterday, Kiechel said the two were unlikely to return even now that Wetlaufer had left the magazine.
“We’ve talked to them before this. They said their resignations are irrevocable,” he said. “I don’t know if they want to talk to us anymore.”
In reaction to turmoil at the Business Review, HBSP decided to form a task force to review ethics problems and conflicts of interest within the publishing branch. The code of ethics is currently in draft form.
“The code of ethics is something we needed to bring up to date anyway and it’s not necessarily affected by her situation,” Kiechel said.
Another of the HBR executive editors, Nicholas Carr, who earlier wrote a letter demanding Wetlaufer’s resignation said yesterday that he had read her statement and that he took it “at face value.”
“Everyone here has complete faith in the integrity of the publication,” said Carr, who is acting as one of HBR’s interim editors.