Three former employees of the San Diego Reader are accusing the paper of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in a recently filed lawsuit:

The suit, filed by Kelly Bonelli, Amy McKibben and Beth Wexler (who have a combined 78-year work history with the Reader), alleges that publisher Jim Holman is responsible for allowing preferential treatment for men in the workplace, which intensified with the hiring of sales manager John-Paul Franklin in 2008.

“Plaintiffs’ efforts to succeed within the company were frustrated by a ‘boys club’ that created a corporate culture in which the overriding environment was such that men were seen as superior and were given unfair advantages such as preferred leads and ‘head starts’ on new sales promotions,” the suit claims.