When Newsrooms Decide to Unionize

On the afternoon of July 23rd BuzzFeed News senior film reporter Adam B Vary tweeted a photograph of a cake emblazoned with quotA union is bornquotamp160 Vary and his colleagues in BuzzFeed39s newsrooms in Los Angeles New York San Franciscoamp160and Washington were celebrating the culmination of an approximately fivemonth effort to receive certification for a union of Buzzfeed journalistsamp160 The effort began in earnest in February in response to the staffing cuts when BuzzFeed laid off 15 percent of its employees due to difficulties in meeting profitability targetsamp160 Although initially resisted by BuzzFeed39s leadership including chief executive officeramp160Jonah Peretti the unionization push gained momentum and was dragged over the finish line after a walkout by Buzzfeed workers in JuneThe BuzzFeed unionization effort has been widely reported as another mile marker in a push along these lines that has taken place across much of the industry amp8212 in print and digital amp8212 since 2015amp160 Less than a half year after Lydia DePillis39 January 2015 Washington Post piece quotWhy Internet Journalists Don39t Organizequot journalists at Gawker decided to become the exceptionamp160 And then those at Salon The Guardian US ThinkProgress HuffPost USamp160and others followed suitThe trend also spread to publications expressly on the left including the socialist publication Jacobin and Glenn Greenwald39s The Interceptamp160 By 2018 similar things were happening at some print newspapers that previously hadn39t had a unionized editorial staff including outlets owned by Tribune Publishing formerly Tronc Incamp160such as theamp160Chicago Tribune and the Hartford Courantamp160 All the while the union initiative received mixed responses from leadership at the various publications from strong opposition in many cases to measured support from executives such as Gawker founder Nick DentonAlthough those at some publications have scored victories in terms of higher wages guarantees of editorial independenceamp160and more desirable working conditions the unionization effort has not always worked out as plannedamp160 For instance in October 2017 Joe Ricketts closed down his fledgling local news projectsamp160DNAinfo and Gothamistamp160after staff voted in support ofamp160quotunionizing with the Writers Guildquot despite Ricketts39 stated oppositionamp160 The shuttering of the publications cost 115 workers their jobs and also represented a blow to a company that was seeking to build an enterprise in the already embattled space of local newsamp160 Explaining Ricketts39 decision to close the company in response to the unionization move a spokesperson stated quotThe decision by the editorial team to unionize is simply another competitive obstacle making it harder for the business to be financially successfulquotThis all takes place amid vigorous debateamp160 Proponents of unionization argue that not only are the objectives for workers worthwhile in and of themselves but also that they result in better content over time as employees are more inclined to stay at a publication longer and invest heavily in the journalism they produceamp160 Critics of the move argue that unions create an adversarial dynamic between a publication39s leadership and its journalists while also potentially adding costs at news outlets already hurting for profitsPerhaps the most important question when it comes to the unionization push is quotWhy nowquotamp160 The first major move for organized labor in the United States in the news space came in April 1934 when The American Newspaper Guild sealed its first contractamp160 It was with The Philadelphia Record and it spread from there bringing unions to many papers across the United Statesamp160 Like the unionization movement of the 2010s this original media unionization push came in the wake of layoffs and reports of less than stellar payamp160 For instance three years before in 1931 the New York World which once had Joseph Pulitzer at the helm laid off 3000 workers when it closedamp160 It seems to be something of a similar story today except the layoffs and low wages at modern news providers are more the result of increased competition from tech giants such as Google and Facebook rather than a global economic depressionBut of course it39s not just the behemoth platforms that are making newsrooms and their employees so uneasyamp160 As Claire Lehmann a pioneer of socalled quotnew mediaquot tweeted in the aftermath of the beating of Andy Ngo this July quotThe future of journalism individuals with GoPros broadcasting straight to social media bypassing mastheadsamp160 So yes any journalist who relies on a salary from a dated institution would naturally feel somewhat threatened by those who make their own wayquotPlatforms from Twitter to Medium are arguably posing a risk to more traditional publishers which must contend with the costs of an editorial processamp160 But it39s not only thatamp160 The consistently low public trust in news media can lead some previous consumers of the mainstream outlets to look elsewhere threatening the subscriber or reader base of many publicationsThe unionization push among journalists is a rare bright spot for unions whose memberships have declined considerably from 34 percent of American workers in 1954 to 107 percent today with only a 65 percent current rate for privatesector jobsamp160 Some might be inclined to read the current unionization push particularly in digital journalism as a canary in the coal mine for the health of digital mediaamp160 It was only when the problems amp8212 such as the layoffs amp8212 began that journalists many of whom hardly grew up in union households decided that this was the answeramp160 This interpretation may very well be true but that ought not be read necessarily as an indictment of the health of these publications in times to comeamp160 As we saw with the last unionization effort nearly 85 years ago a fragile state of the news media is often far from permanentClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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When Newsrooms Decide to Unionize

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Erich J. Prince

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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