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GR EXTRA! Guild ads link news quality risk to illegal pay cuts by Thomson Reuters The union representing U.S.-based employees at Thomson Reuters Corp. today launched a multimedia campaign that asks whether the company’s illegal imposition of nearly 10% in pay cuts on its journalists and other employees will reduce the quality of Reuters news and information. Billboard trucks will roll daily through Manhattan’s financial district and midtown with the message: “Reuters is bad news for its employees. Is it bad for your bottom line?” All Roads No Longer Lead To Print The New Haven Register‘s parent company’s new CEO told his 3,100 employees that he’s bringing their newsrooms into the digital age. To start: Every reporter gets a video camera. They now work for a “media company,” not a “newspaper company.” The new boss, John Paton, broke the news to Journal-Register Co. (JRC) employees last Thursday in a seven-minute, ten-second slide show emailed companywide. |
THE GUILD REPORTER GR EXTRA! Thomson Reuters charged with illegally cutting pay of U.S. staff In a charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board, Global media giant Thomson Reuters Corp. was accused today of unilaterally and illegally imposing drastic cuts in the compensation of its unionized journalists, technicians and other U.S.-based employees. The Guild also charged the company with illegally implementing a Twitter policy that bars employees from tweeting anything “that would damage the reputation of Reuters News or Thomson Reuters." GR EXTRA! Update on the MedaNews bankruptcy Consolidation with the Chronicle in the works? The MediaNews bankruptcy marches ahead, with Chapter 11 proceedings apparently limited to MNG's holding company, Affiliated Media Inc., leaving employees and union contracts unaffected. But at this point a main concern for all Guild members should be whether this bankruptcy will pave the way for even more consolidation -- including a potential merger of the Bay Area News Group with the San Francisco Chronicle. That would be a grave mistake. GR EXTRA! Judge signs off on Tribune bonuses Payout triples last year's, despite bankruptcy, layoffs A federal bankruptcy judge today approved $45.6 million in bonuses for some 700 Tribune Company executives, despite strong objections from the Newspaper Guild. However, the judge took no action on two other components of the bonus program that would have meant more than an additional $20 million for top corporate management. Tribune, currently undergoing reorganization through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, has about $13 billion in debt. GR EXTRA! Antitrust cops ignore York sleight-of-hand MediaNews thumbs nose at JOA as it builds financial house of cards The news last week that MediaNews Corp. was filing for bankruptcy overshadowed its settlement of a federal lawsuit charging antitrust violations in Charleston, WV. That's unfortunate, because the West Virginia settlement not only illustrates how a publisher gamed the Newspaper Preservation Act to help it create a financial house of cards, but reopens the question of why a startlingly similar situation in York, PA, remains unchallenged by the U.S. Dept. of Justice. GR EXTRA! Seattle Times seeks indefinite pension plan freeze The Seattle Times has asked Pacific Northwest Guild-represented employees to indefinitely extend a two-year freeze in contributions to the pension plan that otherwise would have been lifted Oct. 1 of this year. The local's leaders have tentatively agreed, subject to a membership vote Monday, Feb. 1. If Guild members approve an indefinite freeze, the company has said it will provide a matching contribution to their 401(k) plan. More Guild Reporter Extra! stories 
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NEWS OF THE GUILD & INDUSTRY
Columnist Agrees to Suppress Political Views, for Now Stephen A. Smith's sports column appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday for the first time in more than two years, after Smith agreed to the Inquirer's demand that he remove political opinions from his web site and stop espousing them on cable news shows. Smith's agreement to the Inquirer's ethics policy -- which he contends has not been applied to other news employees -- applies "until the dispute is resolved by an arbitrator," said Bill Ross, executive director of the Philadelphia Guild. What Will Happen to Media When All the Billionaires Bail? If you're a certain sort of still-employed media person, you're probably wondering how much longer you can hold on to your job. But the larger question might be: Just how unreal -- illusory, delusional, unmoored from the realities of the marketplace -- has your job been all along? Much of the best of contemporary journalism has been producedbecause of the largess of a small group of rich people, and those folks are fading from the scene. The Creed of Objectivity Killed the News The creed of objectivity becomes a convenient and profitable vehicle to avoid confronting unpleasant truths or angering a power structure on which news organizations depend for access and profits. This creed transforms reporters into neutral observers or voyeurs. It has also, with the rise of a ruthless American oligarchy, left the traditional press on the wrong side of our growing class divide.
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Think Again: The Truth About Conservative “Journalism” The break-in by James O’Keefe and his comrades of Senator Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) district office was the culmination of a long-term investment strategy by conservatives to rewrite the rules of professional journalism. The Leadership Institute where James O’Keefe was employed boasts that it has trained more than 79,000 students, in the process undermining the standards of mainstream media organizations and increasing their willingness to swallow the conservative line. Arbitrator sides with former News-Press editor An arbitrator has rejected the Santa Barbara News-Press' $25 million claim against its former editor and ordered the newspaper's owner to pay more than $900,000 in fees stemming from their dispute. Arbitrator Deborah Rothman said Ampersand Publishing went after the journalist in a "scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners, go-for-broke fashion." She said the company spent about $2.4 million litigating the claim against Jerry Roberts. Could Your Cell Phone End Up Killing You? A new debate is raging over whether prolonged cell phone use poses serious health side effects. A new debate is raging over whether prolonged cell phone use poses serious health side effects. There doesn't appear to be any consensus on what, exactly, the harmful effects on cell phone users may be. Unfortunately, the scary truth is that no one knows the full extent of problems brought on by using these must-have consumer electronics, because their use only became especially ubiquitous in recent years. More Guild & industry news
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