A whole lot of journalists strike to demand management change at greatest U.S. newspaper chain

NEW YORK — Journalists at two dozen native newspapers throughout the U.S. walked off the job Monday to demand an finish to painful cost-cutting measures and a change of management at Gannett, the nation’s greatest newspaper chain.

The strike entails tons of of journalists at newspapers in eight states, together with the Arizona Republic, the Austin American-Statesman, the Bergen Record, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and the Palm Beach Post, based on the NewsGuild, which represents employees at greater than 50 Gannett newsrooms. Gannett has mentioned there can be no disruption to its information protection in the course of the strike, which can final for 2 days at two of the newspapers and at some point for the remainder.

The walkouts coincided with Gannett’s annual shareholder assembly, throughout which the corporate’s board was duly elected regardless of the NewsGuild-CWA union urging shareholders to withhold their votes from CEO and board chairman Mike Reed as an expression of no confidence in his management. Reed has overseen the corporate since its 2019 merger with GateHouse Media, a tumultuous interval that has included layoffs and the shuttering of newsrooms. Gannett shares have dropped greater than 60% because the deal closed.

Susan DeCarava, president of the The NewsGuild of New York, known as the shareholder assembly “a slap in the face to the hundreds of Gannett journalists who are on strike today.”

“Gannett CEO Mike Reed didn’t have a word to say to the scores of journalists whose livelihoods he’s destroyed, nor to the communities who have lost their primary news source thanks to his mismanagement,” DeCarava mentioned in an announcement.

In authorized submitting, the NewsGuild mentioned Gannett’s management has gutted newsrooms and reduce on protection to service a large debt load. Cost-cutting has additionally included pressured furloughs and suspension of 401-Ok contributions.

“We want people in our local community to know what this company is doing to local news, and we want Gannett shareholders to know what Gannett is doing to local news,” mentioned Chris Damien, a felony justice reporter and unit guild chair the Desert Sun, which covers Palm Springs and the encircling Coachella Valley in Southern California.

Gannett Chief Communications Officer Lark-Marie Anton mentioned the corporate disagreed with union’s advice to vote towards Reed.

“During a very challenging time for our industry and economy, Gannett strives to provide competitive wages, benefits, and meaningful opportunities for all our valued employees,” Anton mentioned in an announcement.

Some of the hanging newsrooms are negotiating contracts and accuse the corporate of dragging its toes and negotiating in unhealthy religion, however Anton mentioned the corporate continues to barter pretty.

Among the contract calls for are a base annual wage of $60,000. The median pay for Gannett worker in 2022 was $51,035, based on the corporate’s proxy submitting. Reed’s whole annual compensation was valued at almost $3.4 million, down from $7.7 million in 2021.

At the shareholder assembly, NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss mentioned the union proposed decreasing Gannett’s median CEO-to-employee ratio from 66:1 to twenty:1. But Schleuss mentioned the assembly final simply eight minutes and Reed didn’t deal with any questions.

“What a complete joke. Mike Reed needs to go,” Schleuss mentioned in a collection of tweets.

Gannett, which owns USA Today and greater than 200 different each day U.S. newspapers with print editions, introduced final August that it might lay off newsroom employees to decrease prices because it struggles with declining income amid a downturn in advert gross sales and buyer subscriptions.

The newspaper trade has struggled for years with such challenges, as promoting shifts from print to digital, and readers abandon native newspapers for on-line sources of data and leisure. Major newspapers comparable to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have gained substantial digital audiences for protection of broad subjects, however regional and native papers have struggled to copy that success in narrower markets.

In its first quarter earnings report this yr, Gannett mentioned its digital subscriptions had grown 15% year-over-year, and income from digital circulation grew 20%. The firm reported a $10.3 million revenue versus a $3 million loss in the identical interval final yr, though income fell by 10.6%. The firm additionally reported repaying $37 million in debt.

According to the NewsGuild, Gannett’s workforce has shrunk 47% within the final three years because of layoffs and attrition. At some newspapers, the union mentioned the headcount has fallen by as a lot as 90%.

The Arizona Republic, for instance, has gone from 140 newsroom staff in 2018 to 89 this yr, the NewsGuild mentioned. The Austin American-Statesman’s newsroom shrunk throughout that interval from 110 staff in 2018 to 41 this yr.

Some newspapers have forsaken protection of native sports or enterprise, the union mentioned. Reporters have needed to tackle a number of unrelated beats. Some publications have dropped native information protection altogether to concentrate on regional information.

Rick Edmonds, a media enterprise analyst for the Poynter Institute, mentioned that whereas the union isn’t highly effective sufficient to stop layoffs, the strike exhibits it has gained momentum.