• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 20, 2009

The embattled New York Times Co. found itself even more embattled this week: Two top female editors are suing NYTCO and the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif., which NYTCO owns, for harassment through character assassination and physical intimidation.

In the lawsuit, which was filed March 30 but only became public this week, Leigh Behrens and co-plaintiff Laurie Barton are not alleging that the harassment was sexual in nature -- but their accusations suggest more than just gender bias (not to mention a bitter print-online rivalry).

According to the lawsuit filed by Behrens and Barton, things went sour shortly after they joined the paper, having left positions at the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, respectively.

When Behrens was praised for her work as director of the paper's online division, she and Barton became the object of hostile attention from several male senior editors, who publicly insulted them, engaged in physical intimidation and spread rumors that Behrens was only hired because she was having an illicit affair with the Democrat's publisher, Bruce Kyse.

The paper's human resources manager, Kathy Grant, did nothing to stop the harassment, the lawsuit alleges.

Along with Kyse and Grant, defendants named in the lawsuit include the New York Times Regional Media Group, which owns the Press Democrat, NYT Management Services, and a number of other Press Democrat employees: George Milliner, Robert Swofford, Doug Wilks, Jeff Moriarty, David Foster and James Barger.

This is the latest bad news for the NYTCO especially. In 2008, total print advertising revenues fell 17%;the company has resorted to layoffs and the sale of key assets to keep afloat. Its first-quarter financial results, due out Tuesday, are expected to be negative.