Guild "Foot Soldiers" on Front Lines Of Battle to Save Journalism

Working with the founders of Free Press, TNG-CWA is preparing to build “an army of foot soldiers” to ensure that journalism survives even as the industry itself is changing.

“Our members understand better than anyone what is lost when media companies consolidate, when once-independent newsrooms share reporters, when ad revenues dry up and newspapers close,” said Bernie Lunzer, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA.

“Journalists lose their jobs. But the public loses even more when one-sided press releases are passed off as ‘news’ and no one’s really watching City Hall,” he said.

Free Press is a national, non-profit organization working to promote diverse and independent media ownership, quality journalism and universal access to communications. CWA has worked with Free Press on several initiatives, including the current campaign opposing the Comcast/NBCU mega-merger and efforts to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to bar further media consolidation.

Members are Worried

“Our members are deeply concerned,” Lunzer said. “They’ve seen first-hand the failure of the traditional business model. They are horrified by the outcomes already of clustering, layoffs, buyouts, furloughs and reduced wages.”

Some Guild locals have been pursuing new strategies for several years, including employee ownership of newspapers that would otherwise be sold to conglomerates or shut down completely. A major effort by the Northern California Media Workers Guild includes partnering with the new, nonprofit Bay Area News Project, a news service that has already signed up the New York Times.

Media Workers President Michael Cabanatuan said that “instead of hunkering down with our hands over our heads, we’re trying to become more efficient and effective, to provide training and assistance to our current and former members, to organize freelancers (including many of our laid-off members), and to help build the future of news.”    

Brainstorming

TNG-CWA is planning a May strategy session in Cleveland and is encouraging broad attendance from U.S. and Canadian locals.

Free Press founders John Nichols and Robert McChesney have been invited to be a big part of the discussion that will focus on ways TNG-CWA and other groups concerned about democracy can help maintain the vital role of a free press.

“This should not be a discussion about journalism. It should not be a discussion about newspapers, or a discussion about media. This is a discussion about democracy,” Nichols said. “The founders were very, very blunt: Freedom of the press meant not just a free press but a ‘press’ — something real.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean a printing press, but it does mean ensuring that there’s a new generation of trained, experienced and paid reporters and editors doing the hard work of real journalism.