Worcester Business Journal postpones awards after 'assault' at photo shoot
WORCESTER — The Worcester Business Journal postponed its annual 40 Under Forty edition and ceremony after an incident during a July photo shoot that sparked a police investigation.
Brad Kane, editor of the biweekly newspaper, described the incident as “an assault” in a column Monday, but did not divulge any details.
In a phone call with the Telegram & Gazette, Kane said he would not comment beyond what he wrote in the column due to the ongoing investigation.
“Everything else seems trivial,” he said.
A Worcester police spokesman could not immediately provide further details.
Through online and print platforms, the Worcester Business Journal primarily covers business and economic developments in Central Massachusetts out of a newsroom on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester.
Prior to making the public announcement of its 40 Under Forty, which was set to take place this year in the Aug. 21 edition, the publication gathers the honorees for portrait and group photography, an event designed to be “fun” and “slightly zany,” Kane wrote in his column.
This year, the event lasted four hours.
"That summer day when we held this year's photo shoot had been particularly hot and rainy, so when I saw the ambulance pull into the parking lot at the end of the night, I thought someone had gotten overwhelmed from the weather and needed some kind medical attention," Kane wrote. "Instead, what I and the rest of WBJ’s staff learned in the following days and weeks has been far more alarming.
“WBJ is fully cooperating with the police, providing whatever the investigators need in their efforts,” Kane wrote. “The safety of our event attendees is paramount to WBJ’s core values, and we are dumbfounded, outraged, and devastated this happened.”
The 40 Under Forty ceremony, originally scheduled for Sept. 13, will take place at a later date, Kane said.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester Business Journal 40 Under Forty postponed after 'assault'
