Category: News

Kenosha, WI: A shrinking newsroom, doing more with less

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Sept. 28, 2020, on  SaveTheNews.org.
By Dean Olsen
Oct. 1, 2020 – Reporters from 75 or more news outlets across the United States descended on Kenosha, Wisconsin, to cover emotional and sometimes violent protests in the days after Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot in the back multiple times by Kenosha police.

But when community members gathered for a prayer service on the shores of Lake Michigan a few days after Blake was shot, the only reporter present was from the local paper, the Kenosha News.

Continue reading “Kenosha, WI: A shrinking newsroom, doing more with less”

Town Hall Sept. 30 – Saving The News: Paths Forward

Sept. 24, 2020 – The business model that sustained American journalism for roughly 240 years is collapsing and The NewsGuild must be part of the solution. So join us for a panel discussion with some of the leading thinkers on the state of the news industry in America and how to build a sustainable future for our work.

Guild members: Register here by 5 p.m. to join NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss at 7 p.m. ET Weds., Sept. 30, for “Save the News: Paths Forward.” Guild members who register through Zoom will be able to ask questions via chat. The panel also will be streamed on Facebook. Continue reading “Town Hall Sept. 30 – Saving The News: Paths Forward”

NewsGuild condemns Tribune hoax

Sept. 24, 2020 – NewsGuild-CWA members at Tribune publications across the country were “aghast at the blatant insensitivity” of a management decision to email employees promising bonuses of $5,000 to $10,000.

Why? Because the employees weren’t about to get bonuses; the email was a stunt to test their susceptibility to phishing scams. Instead of money, the employees were notified they would have to take training on avoiding suspicious links. Continue reading “NewsGuild condemns Tribune hoax”

Pottstown Mercury: an Army of One

By Dean Olsen

The article first appeared on Sept. 22 on SaveTheNews.org.

Sept. 23, 2020 – When Evan Brandt began working at The Mercury as a municipal reporter in 1997, his beat focused on one community — Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and the daily paper had 14 reporters, including a few sportswriters.

Twenty-three years later, Brandt, The Mercury’s only municipal reporter, covers nine school districts and 30 communities in and near Pottstown, a town of 23,000 people 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Continue reading “Pottstown Mercury: an Army of One”

NewsGuild joins call: Drop charges against KPCC reporter

Updated Sept. 18, 2020 to include the sheriff’s response.

Sept. 17, 2020 – The NewsGuild-CWA joined more than 60 press freedom and journalism organizations Wednesday calling on Los Angeles law enforcement officers to drop charges against reporter Josie Huang, who was violently arrested and charged with obstruction while reporting on Sept. 12. Continue reading “NewsGuild joins call: Drop charges against KPCC reporter”

NewsGuild leadership unanimously approves Pittsburgh strike; New editor starts today, faces immediate challenge

For immediate release: Sept. 14, 2020

Contact: Sally Davidow
sdavidow@cwa-union.org

Citing an unrelenting course of bad faith and surface bargaining, untenable and abusive working conditions unlawfully imposed upon NewsGuild members at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a despicable pattern of hostile treatment of workers by the company’s owners, The NewsGuild-CWA Executive Council unanimously endorsed Guild members’ request to strike. Continue reading “NewsGuild leadership unanimously approves Pittsburgh strike; New editor starts today, faces immediate challenge”