Fifteen NewsGuild local leaders called on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to improve the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act to ensure that publishers spend the money they derive from the bill on journalism.
In a Sept. 7 letter, the NewsGuild local presidents and unit chairs pointed out that there is no such requirement in the legislation as currently drafted. The committee is set to mark up the bill on Thursday.
The Guild leaders said they had no confidence that publishers would use the revenue they collect from JCPA to invest in journalists and journalism rather than “more mergers, stock buybacks, overpaid executives and union-busting lawyers.”
“That’s how these companies spend the revenues that they already extract from our members’ journalism,” they said.
The bill would exempt local news publishers from anti-trust regulations and permit them to bargain collectively with Google and Facebook over fees for access to their content. The NewsGuild has repeatedly said that the bill must include a requirement that funds be spent on hiring new journalists.
The local leaders compared the JCPA to an Australian law that Australia’s media union has criticized for its “failure to specify that funds generated through the bargaining arrangements must be directed to production of journalistic content.”
“We share similar concerns about JCPA,” the Guild leaders said. “Revenue distributions under JCPA are not tied to new hiring of news workers,” they wrote.
The letter-signers are presidents of NewsGuild locals and leaders of Guild bargaining units that represent journalists employed by the nation’s largest local news conglomerates, including Gannett, Lee Enterprises, Alden Global Capital’s MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing. Together, the companies control one-third of all U.S. daily newspapers.
The letter cites numerous examples of bad behavior by Gannett, the country’s biggest news chain, to underscore the risks JCPA poses if it fails to hold accountable the publishers who stand to be the financial beneficiaries of the legislation.
“We welcome policy debate that pursues a sustainable environment for the local journalism that our democracy requires,” the letter says. “But you must apply basic scrutiny to our employers while you seek to hold Big Tech accountable.”
The letter was addressed to Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IO), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Mike Lee (UT).
It was signed by:
Matt Pearce, President, Media Guild of the West, TNG-CWA Local 39213
Derek Moore, President, Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521
Devi Shastri, President, Milwaukee Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA Local 51
Heidi Groover, President, Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37082
Jenna Watson, President, Indianapolis Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA Local 34070
Danielle Parhizkaran, Unit Chair, The Record Guild
Jack McLoone, Unit Chair, Atlantic DOT Guild
Peter D. Kramer, Unit Chair, Hudson Valley News Guild
Susanne Cervenka, Unit Chair, APP-MCJ Guild
Tracy Schuhmacher, Treasurer, Newspaper Guild of Rochester
H. Rose Schneider, President, Utica News Guild
Vicki Viotti, Unit Chair, Honolulu Star-Advertiser Guild
Veronica Serrano, Bargaining Committee Chair, Austin NewsGuild
Elizabeth Chou, Unit Chair, Southern California News Group Guild
Christopher Damien, Unit Chair, The Desert Sun NewsGuild