Salient staff demand editor resign after concern over conduct

His staff asked him to resign, but he remains editor. Four staff have quit since April. After 87 years in production, his boss doesn’t know if the magazine will survive the year.  

The 2025 Salient editor, Will Irvine. Photo / Salient website

Victoria University’s student magazine, Salient, is in crisis as staff up and leave following a sexual assault confession by the magazine’s editor.  

In April, editor Will Irvine sent an eight-page manifesto to his staff through an Instagram group chat, as well as sending it to his employer at Victoria University of Wellington Student Association (VUWSA).  

The manifesto, sent to Massive by Irvine, said, “There is a reason that the Instagram Stories that appeared a number of weeks ago tagged VUWSA and Salient, posted screenshots of me viewing the story, and chose specific words. This is a deliberate and concerted attempt to bait me into playing the pathetic abuser, and I will not grant them this.” 

It continued, “I will get one element out of the way before I proceed. There has been one instance in my life where I have sexually assaulted somebody.” 

“A couple of months after I turned 17, I blacked out at a house party on a combination of cannabis and vodka supplied by a friends’ mother. When I woke up, I was informed that I had grabbed the breasts of someone, who I will not name here.”  

He wrote that he went through conflict resolution with his high school. 

Irvine said, “Since the initial sexual assault, when I was 17, I have lived my life in complete defiance of the person I was that night.” 

The manifesto said an ex-girlfriend had accused him of sexual assault, which he denied, saying the allegations were “categorically false”.  

Referencing a different woman, Irvine wrote, “It is impossible to overstate the impact [redacted name] continual lying and deceit has had on my life. Whenever I meet a stranger, I have a 50% chance that they will already know me as “the Nelson rapist” or now, “the Salient rapist”.” 

When Irvine shared his manifesto with staff, his Instagram message seen by Massive read: “If, after reading this, you still feel like you no longer want to be associated with Salient – that is absolutely fine. Please contact Matt or me and we can out a termination arrangement.” 

Having approached people involved with the magazine this year, Massive spoke to six people separately, on the condition of anonymity.  

All told a similar story — that Irvine had been asked to resign over email, and VUWSA management had not done enough to help them.  

Multiple staff described feeling backed into a corner by Irvine, forced to either resign themselves or appear to support him. They felt the responsibility was on staff to leave an uncomfortable workplace, rather than management to make improvements.  

But some said resigning and losing income wasn’t an option.  

Salient staff member Charlie* said, “Why should I have to quit because he did something bad. It feels so unfair.” 

Charlie interpreted Irvine’s comments as an ultimatum: “If you’re not comfortable with working for someone who has sexually assaulted someone, you can quit.” 

Some staff did not appreciate Irvine sending his manifesto over social media, and were also uncomfortable with the level of personal details included. 

The email sent to Irvine requesting he resign, seen by Massive, read: “We feel that we cannot continue working at Salient if you continue as our editor; we don’t see how the magazine could continue amid public scrutiny either”. 

Massive understands Irvine did not respond over email, instead reaching out to staff individually to say he would not be resigning. Some found this confrontation uncomfortable and inappropriate. 

Charlie believed the quality of the magazine had dropped. This, an uncomfortable work environment, and the admitted sexual assault were Charlie’s reasons for asking Irvine to resign.  

From being confronted in public and on social media – staff felt Irvine’s personal life had affected their own reputations. 

Charlie expressed their view this way, “He is so ignorant of the fact that it is affecting us and the way that we are perceived by everyone else.” 

Staff said student contributors outside the team had pulled work from the magazine.  

Staff went to the association CEO Matt Tucker in different capacities, but said he was never able to commit to taking serious action, such as Irvine’s removal.  

CEO Tucker told Massive the association had received legal and HR advice, “it probably reflects the decisions we’re making”. He said he had not seen any malpractice that would be grounds for termination. 

After nine years as the CEO, he said he’d never had issues with Salient or the editor of this magnitude, “The social media comments and resignations are unprecedented.”  

He said this year was the first time he’d seen the magazine’s pickup rate drop, and had lowered the print run by 18% as a result. The page count had also been cut due to concerns about staff resignations.  

Tucker said, “Will Salient survive the long term? Yes. Will Salient survive this year? I don’t know.” 

“We’ve talked about it at length about whether to make public statements, but because we can’t say necessarily what we want to say, that’s not helpful.” 

He wasn’t aware that Irvine had sent his manifesto to staff on Instagram at the time, “I would have advised against sending personal information out to staff that wasn’t relevant.”  

“People that manage other people shouldn’t bring their personal issues into the job. That shouldn't happen and I imagine those types of things won’t happen again.”  

Former staff member Alex* had attempted to keep their distance from Irvine and focus on their job. But said when people started coming up to them on campus asking if they were quitting, separating the job from the boss got complicated.  

Alex didn’t believe it was appropriate for Irvine to be editor: “If your personal life seeps into your professional life and affects the mental health of all your employees ... you obviously don’t have the ability to lead a team.”  

Alex felt frustrated that Irvine had not resigned, “Why are we having to lose our jobs and our form of income, for your personal life and ego?” 

Frankie*, a former team member, was also concerned about their reputation. “I really didn’t like the idea of people thinking that I was associated or okay with it in any way.” 

“It became about the fact that our job had become to clean up his mess.” 

And when it came to VUWSA, Frankie said, “I don’t know to what extent they’ve put their hands behind their own backs.” 

*Names changed for anonymity