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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.
Continue reading “Newsletter: This Gannett boss thinks working for free builds character”
Editor’s Note: This article appears in full on Nieman Lab.org.
To the ancient Greeks, Cerberus was the hound of Hades, a multi-headed dog with a serpent’s tail who kept souls from escaping the underworld. His eyes burned with fiery lava and he vomited bile.
The canine’s namesake, Cerberus Capital Management, is a private equity firm that, like Alden Global Capital, specializes in acquiring distressed businesses — and, alongside Alden, it is now in the business of devouring newsrooms in the name of profit.
Cerberus was Alden’s financial backer for its recent takeover of Tribune Publishing, but the two secretive companies have a shared history that goes back to at least 2015.
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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.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Supporting Afghan journalists and rallying for local news”
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.
Continue reading “Newsletter: An organizing record!”
The NewsGuild-CWA is enthusiastically supporting a bill that would provide a path to financial stability for struggling local newspapers, digital-only publications and local television and radio stations through a series of tax credits.
“The Local Journalism Sustainability Act would provide a much-needed boost to save local news jobs,” said NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss. “Half of America’s journalism jobs have been wiped out in the past decade and the losses have accelerated during the pandemic.
Continue reading “NewsGuild applauds Local Journalism Sustainability Act”
MAY 13, 2021
CONTACT: Sally Davidow
sdavidow@cwa-union.org
Residents and local organizations served by Tribune Publishing newspapers have a message for the company’s shareholders: vote NO to a proposed takeover by Alden Global Capital.
With shareholders set to vote May 21 on a $17.25 per share bid by the New York hedge fund, dozens of prominent individuals, local unions and community organizations served notice to Trib Pub shareholders that their actions could have profound impacts on millions of stakeholders, posting a letter to shareholders on the Securities & Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database.
Continue reading “Communities call on Tribune Publishing to vote against takeover bid”
The recently-enacted American Rescue Plan includes several elements of special interest to workers and their unions, NewsGuild Executive Vice President Marian Needham reports.
One little noticed benefit is a provision that grants a 100% subsidy for six months of health care premiums for COBRA-eligible people who lose their jobs or eligibility for employer coverage for the period from April 1 to Sept. 30, 2021.
Continue reading “American Rescue Plan includes important health care provisions”
A committee of the Connecticut state legislature heard compelling testimony Thursday about the value of The Hartford Courant to the local community and the threat that Alden Global Capital poses to it.
Continue reading “Connecticut legislature hears testimony on the value of the Hartford Courant”
In a hearing on saving “the free and diverse press,” NewsGuild president urges lawmakers to protect local news and jobs
Summing up the nation’s local news crisis as a combination of unfair siphoning of advertising revenue by online platforms and “predatory financial actors” who strip newsrooms of jobs and resources, NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss testified Friday at a congressional hearing to address the nation’s local news crisis.
Continue reading “Congress addresses the local news crisis”
NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss told a House subcommittee on Friday that local news is facing “an extinction-level” threat that jeopardizes American democracy. His oral statement is below:
“Chairman Cicilline, Ranking Member Buck, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for having me today.
“My name’s Jon Schleuss and I’m president of The NewsGuild-CWA and I’m here to tell you about the extinction-level event workers are facing in the news industry.
“We’re the largest union of journalists in the United States, with thousands of news workers among our membership — at large publications like the Washington Post and New York Times and small ones like the Billings Gazette in Montana News and the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union. We’re also part of the Communications Workers of America.
“I grew up in rural south Arkansas and remember as a kid that my grandmother got two newspapers every day. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in the morning and the Camden News in the afternoon.
