Category: Newsletter

Newsletter: A watchful eye

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Did you notice the new logo at the top of this email? I unveiled the new design at our Sector Conference last week to rave reviews.

The design, which was selected by our Executive Council, is forward-looking while paying tribute to our proud history. Several features — the unblinking eye, protective shield, radiating lines — are adapted from logos we used decades ago. They symbolize the watchdog role and illuminating effect of journalists and media workers.

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Newsletter: Constitutional improvements in front of Saturday’s Sector Conference

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This Saturday we’ve got the 2021 NewsGuild Sector Conference. It’s our biennial conference where elected delegates set policies for our union, pass resolutions, amend our constitution and nominate officers.

Because of the pandemic it made sense to move this year’s conference to a virtual one and it will get started at 10 a.m. ET Saturday. I expect about 100 folks from all over the NewsGuild to attend. This year’s primary agenda will focus on some major changes to our constitution governing our elections. These proposed improvements will make sure that every member gets notified of their ability to be eligible to vote and that members get ballots delivered by mail until the U.S. Dept. of Labor allows electronic voting.

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Newsletter: Journalists have receipts

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That’s the message to Gannett CEO Mike Reed on the subject of unpaid overtime at the nation’s biggest news chain.

We launched an investigation after members first tweeted about the practice inside Gannett and a top editor tweeted, “Every business exploits the young – it’s called gaining experience, and I don’t regret it one bit.” He later added, “Prove yourself and they’ll pay you.”

In my email to Reed, I let him know about the investigation and urged him to launch his own investigation, end the culture of exploitation and agree to the common-sense contract proposals advanced by journalists at Gannett.

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Newsletter: This Gannett boss thinks working for free builds character

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There is some big U.S. legislative news this week: the jobs tax credit in the Local Journalism Sustainability Act made it into the House Ways and Means Committee recommendations for reconciliation. This means it has a very good chance of becoming law.

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Newsletter: Supporting Afghan journalists and rallying for local news

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The NewsGuild and four other media unions urged President Biden to support journalists, support staff and families who are desperately trying to flee Afghanistan in a letter sent on Aug. 23.

“We have watched the rapid deterioration of the situation inside Afghanistan with great concern for everyone involved,” we said. 

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Newsletter: A lawyer oopsie, a work stoppage and more wins

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Hundreds of New York Times tech workers held a work stoppage last week to protest management’s attempts to prevent about one-third of tech employees, including product designers and data analysts, from voting in their upcoming election on union representation. They also protested other unfair labor practices, such as management illegally asking workers their views about unionizing and saying that workers would get more from management if they stopped organizing. I was fired up speaking to the workers at their rally Wednesday. These workers are innovating the future of journalism and they deserve a voice in their workplace!

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Newsletter: An organizing record!

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I’m just going to start with some very exciting news: last week our union hit a new record.

More workers have joined our union in 2021 than in any year in recent history. That number stands at more than 1,500 workers across 29 workplaces. It started with journalists at the Loveland Reporter-Herald in Colorado and includes Washington state McClatchy papers, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Daily News, MinnPost, the Kansas City Star, the Atlantic, the ACLU of Missouri and many, many others! See the full list here.

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Newsletter: Not just a wave; it’s a movement

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This week sort of exploded with two major press freedom issues around the world.

A major investigation by Washington Post journalists and many others exposed an operation by a private spyware company that has been hacking into the phones of journalists around the world. Activists, politicians and journalists were found on a list of more than 50,000 targeted phone numbers. It’s an expansion of a disturbing trend by authoritarian regimes that are suppressing dissent by targeting journalists. I was proud to bring our union back into the International Federation of Journalists last year. The group of large journalism unions quickly condemned the targeting of journalists. We stand with them and journalists around the world condemning the spying and suppression of free speech.

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Newsletter: They didn’t take bad news lying down

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Happy Wednesday! Members of The Appeal Union certainly didn’t take the announcement that management was closing their beloved publication due to financial concerns lying down.

They swung into action, secured a generous severance package for themselves and their coworkers, and negotiated with management to allow them to relaunch The Appeal as a worker-led news outlet.

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Newsletter: Strike averted! A victory for us all!

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Congratulations to NewsGuild members at The New Yorker, Pitchfork and Ars Technica, who announced Wednesday that a strike has been averted and an agreement in principle has been reached on historic first contracts with Condé Nast, the publications’ parent company.

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