FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 10, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NewsGuild-CWA will take its campaign to “Preserve Our Local News” to readers on Thursday when it distributes flyers outside more than 50 GateHouse newspapers across 14 states.
The flyers decry GateHouse Media’s aggressive program of layoffs and cost-cutting as the company prepares for a potential merger with the Gannett Corp. GateHouse says there will be up to $300 million in additional cuts and “synergies” following the merger.
“The cuts will result in massive layoffs, and they will severely damage the newspapers’ ability to function as a watchdog over local governments and institutions,” NewsGuild President Bernie Lunzer said. “They will drastically curtail the papers’ ability to tell the stories of their communities.”
Lunzer said NewsGuild members and their colleagues in the Guild’s parent union, the Communications Workers of America, will urge readers to tell Mike Reed, CEO of GateHouse’s parent company, New Media Investment Group, to “hold the line on corporate greed and put local journalism first.”
Flyers will be distributed at papers that employ workers represented by The NewsGuild and those without union representation. A list of the locations where leafleting will occur is available here.
“When journalism suffers, communities suffer,” Lunzer said. “We have seen far too many newspapers savaged by GateHouse cutbacks already. We intend to stand up for quality journalism and to work with readers to do so.”
About The NewsGuild-CWA
The NewsGuild-CWA is the largest union of journalists and other communications professionals in North America, representing more than 20,000 workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The Communications Workers of America represents more than 700,000 employees in telecommunications and information technology, the airline industry, news media, broadcast and cable television, health care, public service and education, law enforcement, manufacturing and other fields.
To arrange an interview with NewsGuild-CWA President Bernie Lunzer, contact Sally Davidow, (202) 434-1162 or email sdavidow@cwa-union.org.