Globe investigating allegation top editor sent inappropriate text

Brian McGrory, editor of The Boston Globe.

Top management at The Boston Globe is investigating public allegations on social media of “an inappropriate text exchange’’ between Globe editor Brian McGrory and a former Boston.com editor, according to an internal memo sent to employees Wednesday.

“When we first learned about the social media discussion . . . we began investigating to gather as much relevant information as we could,’’ said the memo, from Linda Henry, Globe managing director, and Vinay Mehra, president and chief financial officer. Henry and Mehra said they have tried “to ascertain the timing and context of the text in question,’’ but “at this time it is still unclear when these exchanges took place.’’

The former editor, Hilary Sargent, told a Globe reporter that the newspaper’s lawyers have sent her a draft of a Superior Court lawsuit, which names her as a defendant. That suit would seek to compel Sargent under the terms of her 2016 separation agreement from the organization to provide the newspaper more information about the text in question, such as the date, and ask for unspecified damages.