2021 NJ Local News Summit (Part 2)
JJoe AmditisNov 19, 2021 at 5:02 pm45min
SStefanie Murray
00:01Hi, everyone, welcome back. That was a quick break, it went by fast. So, as Cassandra mentioned before break next up is a conversation about unionization in New Jersey's news ecosystem. We've seen a handful of new unions pop up in our state over the last two years. And so to give us more context, and look ahead, we're gonna dive into this topic. Oh, so I'd like to welcome our colleague, he's coming out from behind the curtain on to the front of the stage joy of the day, who's gonna moderate the discussion, any questions you have for the group? Again, please drop them in the q&a. We've got lots of time for questions. And we want to keep this conversation going and rich. So please drop your questions there. And we will wrap up with this at three and take another break before we move on with the rest of the day. So with that, I will hand it over to Joe and our panel.
JJoe Amditis
00:50All right, thank you so much, definitely appreciate it. Just so everybody knows, I am going to be running the tech and this panel at the same time. So I would ask our audience to please bear with me. And right now I'm just bringing all our speakers on stage where we project. So we have Melanie, Suzanne and Jack with us here. We're going to be talking about unionization in newsrooms across New Jersey over the last year or so particularly in the broader context of the unionization, I'd say wave that's been happening, at least recently, very encouraging and inspiring stuff going on throughout the country, and especially in New Jersey. Before we get into things, you know, start off with little introductions. First of all, my name is Joe Amditis. I am the Assistant Director here at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State I've been working with and for and on behalf of news organizations of all sizes and shapes in New Jersey for the last eight years now with the center and then before that started my own little digital news organization outside of New Brunswick there. But, you know, I've been fascinated by this topic for as long as I've been interested in media, just the idea of collective power, collective bargaining, and of course, something that the center supports collaborative, collaborative power and decision making here. So I'd love for you all to give a brief introductions, introduce yourself to our audience here. Tell us about your role in the in your newsroom and in your union. And after that, we'll go into a little bit of the nitty gritty timeline stuff. So you want to start with Melanie.
SSpeaker 1
02:16Yeah, sure. Hi, everybody. Um, so I'm Melanie and today, I'm a reporter at the record newspaper, which is also North jersey.com And part of the larger USA Today network Econet, I've been at the record since June 2014. Over my time, I've started out in the business desk when we had one I was also on the local beat where I cover different towns like Paramus and Hackensack. And then I moved to business were covered retail again. And now I cover an enterprise sports speed, which runs the gamut. I usually find myself covering women's sports, youth, sports, anything like that. And as far as the union, I am the record guild union unit secretary. So that's a little bit about me. tastic. Suzanne, you want to go next? Right?
SSpeaker 2
03:06Sure. So I'm Suzanne sir. manca. I've been at bid with a net since January 2007. At one of our sites in Florida, I came up to New Jersey actually helping out with super since with Superstorm Sandy and then move to their full time. January 2013. I've worked on some of our investigations, I cover local government, and also just kind of filled in wherever, wherever the holes have been. With the appm CJ guild, I'm our unit chair. You know, leading the leading our new union.
JJoe Amditis
03:45Fantastic. And finally, last but not least, Jack, go ahead.
SSpeaker 3
03:50Mr. Jack McLuhan, I'm a producer with the Atlantic dot, which is our digital optimization team. So it's a way I always like to explain it is I make sure that people read the good work that the reporters like Melanie and Suzanne, do, headline optimization, that kind of stuff. I started, actually at the Asbury Park Press. In September 2019. A little over a year later, they took us out of our newsrooms, and they created these, you know, regional departments. So that's where I started doing everything for every site in New Jersey. I'm working with colleagues doing the same in New York and also Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. With the Atlantic doc guild, I'm our unit chair as well, and also had helped organize and Asbury prior to my removal to our regional structure.
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