Journalists at The Hill announced Wednesday that they are unionizing. Newsroom employees filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, but asked management and the publication’s new parent company to voluntarily recognize The Hill Guild.
Continue reading “The Hill’s newsroom employees announce union campaign”
The eight newsroom employees of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle voted unanimously on Tuesday to certify the Yellowstone News Guild. They will join the Denver Newspaper Guild Local 37074, which also includes the unionized employees of the Chronicle’s sister paper the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, the Montana News Guild in Billings, and unionized newsrooms in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
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“According to NewsGuild, there was about a 500% jump in workers joining the NewsGuild union from 2017 to 2018.”
Lauren Lindstrom saw the benefits of being part of a union during her four years as a reporter for the Toledo Blade, her first journalism job out of college, a recent study by the University of North Carolina reports.
“I learned first-hand from older journalists what working in a unionized newsroom looks like: Having each other’s backs, having more say in your workplace, better working conditions for journalists who have been suffering for years,” she said.
Continue reading “University of North Carolina report examines upsurge in newsroom unionization”
Unionized journalists at the Morning Call in Allentown, PA, staged a one-day work stoppage on May 13 to send a message to Tribune Publishing and Alden Global Capital: It’s time for them to stop devaluing the journalists’ work.
Continue reading “Morning Call journalists walk out”
Update: On May 20, the FCC granted the Guild’s request to delay the deadline for opposing a mega merger of news companies. This rarely happens, yet the FCC gave us another month to oppose the proposed takeover of TEGNA by two hedge funds. A merger would raise consumer prices and cut local news jobs. We cannot continue to lose local news jobs, which are already down 28% from 2008.
The NewsGuild asked the FCC on May 12 to delay action on the proposed acquisition of TEGNA by two hedge funds.
Guild President Jon Schleuss also called on TEGNA’s Board of Directors to postpone consideration of the deal, which is currently set for May 17.
Continue reading “NewsGuild seeks FCC delay on acquisition of TEGNA, calls on TEGNA board to postpone vote on proposed deal”
Members of the BuzzFeed News Union voted unanimously on Friday to ratify their first contract.
“Several members of the union bargaining committee started at BuzzFeed making less than $40,000 a year,” they said in a press statement. “Today, we ratified a contract that sets a salary floor for union jobs at $60,000.”
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May 11, 2022 – Update: It’s official! Management of the Bangor Daily News has formally recognized the Bangor Daily News Union.
May 6, 2022 – Update: The Bangor Daily News “has indicated it will voluntarily recognize our union,” union members tweeted on Friday. “We know this is so because we effectively organized our co-workers and demonstrated strong solidarity,” they said.
May 4, 2022 – Newsroom staffers of the Bangor Daily News and Bangor Publishing announced Wednesday that they are unionizing with The News Guild of Maine, Local 31128.
“We choose to work here because we value an independent press, and because we are committed to reporting the truth about local governments, schools and institutions, and to telling the stories of Mainers,” they said in a press statement.
Continue reading “Journalists at Bangor Daily News are unionizing”
Update: April 29, 2022
Our request to the Pulitzer Prizes is really gaining traction! One week ago, more than 50 journalism organizations joined us in asking the Pulitzers to make reporting on newsroom diversity a requirement for award eligibility. More than 160 journalism groups are now supporting the effort.
We have asked that the Pulitzer Prizes plan to announce its intent on or before unveiling the 2022 awards on May 9, 2022. We pointed out that our appeal gives the Pulitzers more than a year to figure out the details of implementation and offered our support to help make this commitment a reality.
(Originally published April 22, 2022) This morning the Guild and more than 50 groups representing journalists across the U.S. called on the Pulitzer Prizes to make participation in an annual diversity survey a condition of eligibility for awards.
Last week Harvard’s Nieman Lab reported that just 303 of 2,500 print and online news organizations responded to a News Leaders Association survey, which has been collecting demographic data for more than 40 years. (The American Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors joined forces to form the News Leaders Association in 2019.)
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Workers and readers of the Reader, Chicago’s “free and freaky” alt-weekly, won a decisive victory Tuesday, when co-owner Len Goodman announced he was stepping down, clearing the way for the paper to transition to a nonprofit organization.
Continue reading “Workers at the Reader win; publication freed to become a nonprofit”
Gannett and GateHouse merged in 2019.
Alden Global Capital gobbled up Tribune Publishing in 2021.
Alden made a play for Lee Enterprises in 2022 – and may make another.
“Consolidation is killing local news,” said NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss. “We will continue to fight consolidation and we call on the federal government to review news industry megamergers by examining how they negatively impact workers, readers, communities, local reporting and U.S. democracy.”
Continue reading “America needs stronger reviews of news company mergers “