 Timothy White was appointed Editor in Chief in 1991 , a position he held until his unexpected death in 2002 . White wrote a weekly column promoting music with " artistic merit , " while criticizing music with violent or misogynistic themes . He reworked the publication 's music charts . Rather than rely on data from music retailers , new charts used data from store checkout scanners obtained from Nielsen SoundScan . He also wrote in @-@ depth profiles on musicians . The website , Billboard.com , was launched in 1995 . Keith Girard replaced White before being fired in May 2004 . He and a female employee filed a $ 29 million lawsuit alleging Billboard fired them unfairly with an intent to damage their reputations . The lawsuit claimed they experienced sexual harassment , a hostile work environment and a financially motivated lack of editorial integrity . Email evidence suggested human resources were given special instructions to watch minority employees . The case was settled out @-@ of @-@ court in 2006 for a non @-@ disclosed sum . 
