The chief executive officer of AT&T Inc.'s Bleacher Report has stepped down in the wake of employee concerns about racial diversity at the sports website.
Howard Mittman, a former Conde Nast executive who was named CEO last year, is leaving the company. Lenny Daniels, president of Turner Sports, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia, will assume responsibility for the site, according to a memo.
Mittman's departure comes after a recent company forum in which an employee expressed concerns about the lack of racial diversity on staff.
In a tweet last week, a designer for Bleacher Report said the publication is "approximating a Black voice and often reducing that experience to aesthetics."
"What will B/R do to ensure we are no longer operating as a committee of White people defining a voice that simply isn't ours?" the employee, Dylan Lathrop, wrote.
The protests following the death of George Floyd have pressured media companies, including those covering sports, to step up their diversity efforts. Earlier this month, the union representing staff at the Ringer, a sports-media company founded by Bill Simmons, complained about the lack of Black employees on staff.
"Diversity in the newsroom is essential to covering police brutality and systemic racism, including in the worlds of sports and pop culture," the union said in a tweet. "The Ringer has a lot of work to do." Spotify Technology SA bought the Ringer earlier this year.
In a memo to Bleacher Report's staff Tuesday, Daniels said that "as a workplace, we're committed to creating and maintaining a diverse, inclusive environment for all."
Daniels also listed changes aimed at "bringing more inclusiveness to everything we do," such as infusing more diversity into hiring and management decisions.