The writer behind the story about the "$72 million teenage stock whiz" is staying put at New York Magazine.
Jessica Pressler was slated to join the Bloomberg News investigative unit, but got caught up in controversy this past week following a story she wrote about a New York City high school student who said he'd made $72 million trading stocks. (Spoiler alert: He hadn't.)
New York Magazine's editor-in-chief Adam Moss told his staff Friday in an announcement that reporter Jessica Pressler would be staying at the magazine.
"Can't say that we expected things to turn out this way, but we feel very lucky to be keeping [Pressler] on, and look forward to publishing more of her with pride," Moss wrote in the memo, which was first published by Capital New York. New York Magazine confirmed the authenticity of the memo to CNNMoney.
Pressler's profile of Stuyvesant High School senior Mohammed Islam stirred up controversy and plenty of doubters from the start.
A front page piece about the story by the New York Post and a flurry of Facebook (FB) shares later, the improbable tale unraveled quickly. Islam told the New York Observer on Monday that he never actually made any money at all. As the criticism mounted, Pressler defended her reporting.
"I still think the piece is skeptical enough," Pressler told CNNMoney Monday. "The story says, 'This is a rumor and draw your own conclusions.'"
People began to wonder whether Pressler would move to her new job as early as Tuesday, when blogger Jim Romenesko published an email he sent to Bloomberg questioning the company's plans to hire her. A Bloomberg spokesperson declined to comment to Romenesko at the time, and Bloomberg again declined to comment Friday to CNNMoney.
Pressler seems to be taking it all in stride, tweeting Friday, "Good news is I'm staying @NYMag. Bad news is I lost a shoe at holiday party; not the worst thing this week but annoying so if you see it lmk."
