A suit filed against the New York Times and its chief revenue officer Meredith Levien alleges that when Levien started to downsize employees in 2013 she did so by targeting older and minority employees for dismissal.

The discrimination suit, which has been brought forth by a 51-year-old Asian-American woman named Tracy Quitasol, alleges that issues of “age, gender and race” played into her termination.

Quitasol, who worked for the Times for nine years, held the title of executive director of Product Management and Ad Platform Innovation before eventually becoming the head of the Idea Lab, a job in which she helped to develop ideas meant to increase digital marketing.

According to Quitasol, when the Times hired a junior technical programmer to work under her, the new employee would not take orders from her, instead only responding to directives from male superiors. Quitasol asserts that when she brought up the discrimination she felt she was experiencing to Levien, no action was taken to address her concerns.

According to the suit, Levien allegedly made it obvious that she would evaluate whether or not employees stayed on with the Times in terms of how “fresh to their career” they were, as well as assessing "whether they have a family, what's their situation." 

Before Quitasol was fired in 2014, a total of thirty employees were let go in 2013 and were replaced, as the suit claims, “in virtually every case by a white employee under the age of 40.”

When Quitasol was fired, a spokeswoman for the Times said they "generally don't comment on departures." As reported by Capital New York the spokeswoman explained the termination by saying that the Times was "putting more resources into [The Idea Lab] and expanding its charter and capabilities.” The Daily Caller has reported that paper said Quitasol was terminated for displaying inadequate “leadership and ability to communicate.”

As reported by the New York Post the Times plans to mount “a vigorous defense against this suit.”