Beyond McInnes’s extremism, other aspects of the young company’s culture offended some establishment partners. One was the absence of women employees. Some were repelled by McInnes and Smith, who openly recruited women to work for the magazine with the intention of pursuing them at the office, others by freelancers like photographer Terry Richardson, who had been tainted by at least seven sexual harassment allegations since 2001. Another issue was the presence of drugs, especially cocaine, in the office.
