Category: DFM

DFM Workers Expand Coordinated Campaign

Nov. 6, 2017 – NewsGuild members at papers owned by Digital First Media (DFM) expanded a coordinated campaign in recent weeks by exposing the devastating effect that Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that controls DFM, has had on local news coverage and journalists’ jobs.

Workers at DFM’s 12 unionized papers recently unleashed two separate two-day Twitter storms to call attention to the corrosive effect of Alden’s management of the papers: Layoffs at twice the industry average. Gutting the papers’ assets by selling buildings and equipment. Entire communities left without news coverage. Continue reading “DFM Workers Expand Coordinated Campaign”

GateHouse Workers Launch Coordinated Strategy

Workers at the Peoria Journal Star on May 3, World Press Freedom Day.

July 12, 2017 – The battle for fair contracts at GateHouse Media newspapers has intensified in recent months. Workers at the 16 Guild-represented publications engaged in joint actions, developed a coordinated campaign to take on GateHouse and its parent company, and scored a stunning victory at a meeting of shareholders.

Continue reading “GateHouse Workers Launch Coordinated Strategy”

When hedge funds own newspapers…

Just a week after the East Bay News staff was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “relentless” coverage of the deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland, Digital First Media, owner of the Bay Area News Group, announced plans to move copy desk work to Southern California, triggering 20 more layoffs from a shrunken roster of 92 Guild-represented employees in the East Bay.

 

DFM, GateHouse Workers Target a Different Threat to Press Freedom — Asset-Stripping Hedge Fund Owners

Workers at the Trentonian paused to mark World Press Freedom Day.

Nearly 1,500 NewsGuild members in 28 bargaining units joined together on World Press Freedom Day to focus attention on an often-overlooked threat — the damage done to newspapers by profiteering hedge fund owners. Continue reading “DFM, GateHouse Workers Target a Different Threat to Press Freedom — Asset-Stripping Hedge Fund Owners”

Workers at Digital First Media, GateHouse Join Forces on Press Freedom Day

Unionized workers at media outlets owned by GateHouse Media and Digital First Media (DFM) will mark World Press Freedom Day – May 3 – by sending a message to their employers: “Democracy Depends on Journalism: Invest in Us.”

Continue reading “Workers at Digital First Media, GateHouse Join Forces on Press Freedom Day”