Hi, 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.
All 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.
Yeah, 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?
Sure. 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.
Fantastic. And finally, last but not least, Jack, go ahead.
Mr. 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.
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for all that. Before we dive in, I just want to give a little bit of perspective here. I mean, I have articles here, let me see if this will work. I want to just throw this up real quick. There's three points or articles that I was looking at in, you know, preparation for this and you all won't be able to read these but I can post them in the chat. And it just talks about the massive wave. They don't even call it a wave but a movement of journalists who are unionizing across the United States in record numbers. I might add here I'll drop that article. In the chat here, and it says this past year this is from this is from July of this year. In the past decade, workers at news publications have launched more than 200 Union drives, and over 90% of them have been successful. It's you hear a lot about unionization efforts at places like Amazon, the recent vote that Amazon that was that was unsuccessful. There's a lot of union busting tactics so we don't have to get into there. But for whatever reason, you tend to hear a lot more about the unsuccessful ones. I feel like at least in recent headlines, but there has been in the last year alone 37 Union drives, where journalist asked formally for union representation and every single one of them was successful. Now, if you look here, back in February, the the record guild was formed when the Bergen record daily record and NJ Herald came together. 68 staff members across three papers signed it, especially amongst our MCs, the actions by the company by Canet, which is laid off shedding more than 500 jobs over the last year. Here it says since 2016, more than 250 people at three New Jersey papers have been laid off. Talk to me a little bit about the just the the circumstances of this of your unionization votes. We'll start with Jack, tell us a little bit about the circumstances surrounding this process. And you know what, what was going on in your world in your newsroom? And how this started to unfold?
Yeah, I mean, I was somebody who came to it, you know, I'm that dive in 2019. That was my first job out of college. But I think at that point getting into journalism, you were very aware that it was very turbulent, more turbulent, more so than usual, I think, workplace at the time, and people getting laid off all the time. But you know, you said you read all those numbers. I mean, it's not a great place to be. So I knew kind of coming in but wasn't doing anything formal about it. I was just showing up and then but I know, you know, especially Susanna melon, you have been in these newsrooms for longer than I have, obviously, like, witnessed these things happen. I don't know if either you who dodged layoffs or whatever it was, but, you know, for the dots, specifically, like I mentioned, you know, we were pulled out of our newsrooms, and regionalised. And this was in, you know, the fall of last year, in the middle of the pandemic, we had to reapply for our own jobs back. Again, you know, without a promise of having one if we somehow didn't get it, or whatever it was. And I think the undercurrent for all of us was just being very frustrated with a lack of dignity. We did not have any say in our employment, we had no say in the direction of where we were going. And we're made to feel like we were caused more than likely where people are, you know, valued employees who are pulled into this different structure without any sort of input. And if we had been able to provide some input, it would have gotten a lot more smoothly than it has and continues to be I think that was like the main thing for a lot of us it's just been frustrated for even for me, like obviously not working in journalism super long, but was already frustrated within six months, or whatever it was, and I first got that call. I'm sure Melanie and Susanna, much deeper experiences being frustrated. I know they do.
Well, I want to go to Suzanne, because I want to read a statement or read a quote from the statement when the record guild started. I'm sorry, the a PP. MC J. Sorry. It says, quote, we have unionized to advocate for ourselves and to support each other to fight for fairness and equity and demand that Canet treat us with the dignity we deserve. Adding there is no local news without local journalists, we have unionized to preserve our high quality local news coverage and to build a better, more stable future. Suzanne, can you talk a little bit about you know where that statement came from? How it came about? What was the context in which you you all were working towards this? And the same question towards to Jack or at that that I gave to Jack, talk about the circumstances out of which this this grew?
So where Jack was talking a little bit about him, he hasn't really been around quite so much to dodge layoffs. I started with Jeanette when it was, you know, I remember my coworker joked, yeah, you can't get fired by God that you could be. You can't you can't get fired. And I've just left and right. And every I mean, I started two years into journalism working within that, you know, almost 15 years later, I have been dodging layoffs left and right. Jack talked about reapplying for his jobs. I think I've had to reapply for my own job with gannet at least twice. It may have been three times but at least twice. I've watched two sets of newsrooms when I was in Florida, you know, just a newsroom just be decimated. And then to come to New Jersey thinking that like okay, things are going to be stable and then to watch that newsroom be decimated. And you see you. I've watched just how those all of those cuts have impacted the amount and quality of journalism we can do look, we work really really hard to do the best journalism we can. But there's only so much so many people can do. Oh, there's only one. There's only so much one person can do. And I want to say like, our staff is probably like a 10th of what it was when we, when I started in 2007. So that's where that kind of quote came from. Like we, you know, we need, we need the we need to have that staff, we need to make sure that we are our community. I mean, our newsroom was representing our community both, you know, in the knowledge base, the historical knowledge base that's there, and then just also the diversity that's there, our newsroom should match that diversity that's in our communities. Yeah, so that's, that's some of the reasons of you know, how we came to, to look to unionize.
Melanie, I want to piggyback a little bit off or veggie back, I think is what our friend Brent Harley says. And I love that I would have had you back off of what Suzanne was just saying, because in the statement from the record guild, you know, I'll read a quote real quick. With increasing workloads and dwindling resources dedicated to local news gannet expects the staff will continue to accomplish more with less, adding all of this leads to a newsroom that's constantly bleeding talent and struggling to effectively report on the news that matters. And in fact, the point article notes that the Union also said that the newsrooms have lost and alarming which they put, quote, alarming number of journalists of color. Talk about that context here. Talk about that circumstance and the loss. The I don't know if the brain drain is the right word, but specifically in areas where staff are already community of staff of color already dwindling, and almost non existent across New Jersey media and newsrooms across the country, to be honest, in US journalism, talk about how that that what role that played in the unionization process for the record guild? Yeah,
definitely. So one of so I guess, just a quick backtrack. So I've been at the record since 2014. And then we got bought by Econet in 2016. So I have a very unique experience, in the sense that I know before gonna, and after Ghana, and I know I've kind of watched as my specific newsroom, the local newspaper that I grew up reading and watching the high school sports, doing all those things went from having a really bustling newsroom with not only junior level reporters and better employers, but that bid level that we've kind of seen disappear in the industry over time. And specifically, when it comes to journalists of color. I know we, it, we've just watched as my colleagues, specifically Latino and Latin X and Latina journalists, kind of, you know, frustrated at maybe not having the resources or guidance or assistance to do certain things kind of go up and just get different jobs. And historically, that's something that's happening in the industry for a long time. But specifically with the acceleration of the downsizing in our newsroom that kind of accelerated that as well. So we feel that through a union, we can have our voices heard, like, just a very specific example is we used to have a journalist or an editor of color, for example. But now we don't have any of that. And that's just a very specific example of simple ways that we feel that as a union, we can push for better resources, better investments by the company, that will lead to better journalism, because you have editors that reflect the communities you serve, that will have the wherewithal to guide other younger journalists of color who might need guidance to kind of do you know, the nuance, the nuances that you can't find unless you have that diversity in the ranks. So
certainly not an issue that's unique to content newsrooms, either. I'm sure all of us remember. Tennyson, Donnie, his story coming out of NJ advance. Certainly, again, not a unique story in terms of the lack of journalists and editors and reporters of color across the news industry, as we just discussed. What, if anything, and this is a general question to all three of you? I'll start with Jack, what if anything, has changed in those departments since unionization? I know some, it's very, it's been very soon, it was very recent. So, you know, with that in mind, what kind of motions or movements have any of you seen, if any, to sort of rectify, or at least mitigate some of the damages, or push back against that at all? Jack, I'll start with you. And then we'll go to Suzanne, and then Melanie after that.
Yeah, you know, I would say for one thing, I mean, a lot of it is there has been a much larger sense of community, I think amongst individuals that you're on a very broader level. Amy's talking specifically about our situation with the DOD. I mean, we're we're also fully remote that was the other part of us being taken out of newsrooms, those of us that were working individually will now not have a newsroom to go back to ever. And we've got people very spread out because it is a remote job. We have two co workers in Arizona and all these people that we never really met. And all of a sudden I got on the phone with these people every other day, whatever it is. So on the very base level, like I now have new friends, which is nice. I think that something kind of gets lost in the like, unions are here to fight and something again, but also like, get to meet some new people and that's pretty cool. Like I became friends with including the organizing with Asbury, and even now we're doing larger stuff with the record and all that kind of stuff, you know, much closer to all these people than I was beforehand. But you know in terms of 10 tangible stuff. When you are a certified gain, you enter into what's called status quo. They can't make any sort of unilateral changes to your employment, which stretches from, you know, they have to prove like a really strong way, if they want to fire somebody or lay somebody off that they're doing it for a very specific reason. There's a lot of, you know, proof that are special, and they're down to, you know, they can't shuffle around your schedule without asking you. I mean, as we've gotten some protections out of that Melanie or Suzanne would know better than I whether I can talk about the specific one that just happened. But you know, we've gotten some wins out of that already, which has been really great to see without us having, you know, a contract yet. This is all we're getting ready to start bargaining. We just asked her some bargaining dates the other day. But you the stuff you can get without even having a formal contract yet, and so much more protection that you don't have beforehand, in and of itself, I think gives a lot of people some peace of mind.
Suzanne, same question, what kind of progress or at least movements? Have you seen movement? Have you seen towards a healthier, better direction, especially when it comes to restoring the balance and representation in newsrooms?
Yeah, so that's, that's the one with with APB MC j, where the newest of the of our four we count, we have a sister union in in New York that we all partner with. So we are three weeks old, but again, status quo we just recently had
you haven't fixed the problem yet.
I think I think there is just a a lot more of conversations among reporters, both within our newsroom, we are where two sites for AP or Asbury Park Press, and my Central Jersey. And there is we've always, I mean, those two papers have always been good net. But we have so much broader conversations. And there's so much more camaraderie there that we feel like we can have better communications with Dylan's better reporting, because you know, you're having you're talking with someone else, and you have a friendly relationship with them. And then also, we have like, we're more comfortable just saying, like, look, X happened. And, you know, it was on the X happened on the job, we're really frustrated about it. And, you know, what can we do? And before those conversations were man, like, ah, you know, Aw, shucks, like, yeah, that's terrible. But now we actually have a power of like, okay, well, maybe let's brainstorm what would we like to see happen? We have one that just is still just like, literally just popped up. So I don't know if I can talk about the details of it. But we're, but we're talking and saying like, Okay, what would we like to see happen? Like, let's come up with a solution that and then we can, you know, let's try to present the solution, you know, can we come up with a solution without among ourselves? And then, can we present that to the bosses to say, hey, you know, not only do we know that this is the problem, but here's the solution. So that some of that, I mean, and again, we're looking super for, we're really looking forward to starting to bargain.
I love this. Because, you know, I'm a student of the house that that Craig built over a CUNY, the Newmark day school, and they're big on community engagement. They're huge on that social journalism, community engaged journalism, and I love it. Because I think it is it's empowering to communities, it hands the mic over, if you will. But the thing that I think is missing from that, that school of thought of listening is is great, you listen, it's great. But you can listen all you want, but if there's no obligation to follow through or to turn the levers of power, then you can have a situation that happens, like with the correspondent, where they did all the community engagement listening in the world, and then it was two Dutch guys, you know, in a room deciding that, hey, we're gonna change the entire trajectory of things. So I love that I appreciate that. And that's one of the things I think is so powerful that people tend to forget about unions is it's not just, you know, a voice in the room. It's actually a vote in the room, in many ways. So I do appreciate that. I don't want to leave Melanie out, though. Melanie, same question. You know, what kind of progress or motions or movement have you seen at your, at the record guild, in terms of shifting the balance of and the representation in the newsroom of journalists of color?
Yeah, well, I think I'm kind of summarizing what already has been said. But there's just more transparency. There's more communication within rapport with between reporters, producers, photographers, like we all just whenever we have a problem and go to each other and find a collective solution and try to find that and that's, that's an avenue that we didn't have before. And even like Jack mentioned, even without a contract, there is a status quo. So there is some sense of protection there. There's a very specific example that came to mind. There was a reporter, and this is out of the Asbury Park newsroom. We have so we have a regional group chat of you know, diversity, equity inclusion and like a diverse that we talked about, behind the scenes of things that we see. So there is a reporter who, who is of the Jewish faith and she realized that there was a situation where there was celebratory pizza party for the newsroom reaching a milestone. And it was on young poor that they scheduled this. So you know, a very specific, a very specific example of some something where if you had more diversity in the race, something like this would never have happened. So collectively, we were there to support even through the record, we all can't, we're all working across the region, to figure out a way so you know, a little quick Twitter campaign, you can go on Twitter and see the tweets. And then, you know, management, rehearse it. And it seems like a very small thing, but it's not. And that's just one example of something that we can talk about. I know, there's a lot of things we can talk about about the changes that we want to do. But that's something that was on Twitter, it was on social media, it was talked about, I'm sure and Asbury in the more micro level, but we're already seeing wins. And it's nice to have that power, and that hope that we can actually have meaningful change.
Thank you, thank you very much. I see, at least two of you have mentioned contracts, or at least contract negotiations. And I don't know, especially as somebody who I've never been in a journalist or newsroom union myself. And in fact, I've actually never been in a union even as when I was a forklift driver, or a warehouse operator or a truck driver, that all those jobs that has never been fortunate enough to be able to join a union didn't know much about him when I was young. And I've only come to learn more about them as after, you know, in college, and after that. And one thing that I think people don't understand is just how sinister I think contract negotiations can get, I'm not going to ask you all to comment or, you know, to talk about negotiations. But I was wondering if we could talk just a little bit about one example. It's something called a two tier contract. It's a very famous or infamous tactic that's used where the company will, you know, offer it as a consolation or some kind of concession that the people who are currently at the organization or at the company will get a certain level of their demands met, but that anybody who joins after them will will not get that. And I'm wondering if if you can if you can't, don't worry, we'll move on. Again, I don't want to taint any negotiations. But I wonder if that if those kinds of things have come up? Or if that's something that you're dealing with in any of your negotiations that you're able to talk about? Because, again, it's something I've never even heard of. And you know, apparently, it dates back a couple decades. So can anybody talk to that? I mean, it's open floor.
I can slightly, and I guess my I've seen it in things that I've covered in, you know, in covering business where they do that. And I guess Ghana has already been I you know, I started with Ghana, when I'm in Florida, it was a much cheaper, cheaper cost of living cheaper, and it's just a cheaper cost of living in Florida than obviously New Jersey. And so I started at one wage, and I you know, built up I mean, there weren't a lot of raises over the 15 years, but when they were in the moving across the country and negotiating that they're one of the things that I saw and especially was eye opening to me in our in our organizing campaign is that there's some reporters, or some some of our newsroom staff that are starting off at wages that they're starting off at the at the salary that I started off at, in 2007. In Florida. And it's just, I just I can't support it. I mean, and that's, that's part of the fight like I mean, yeah, it's, you organize to get some benefits for yourself. But we have to, we have to be able to make sure that journalism is sustainable into the future. And starting off, journalists at wages where they can't afford an apartment in New Jersey. That's just, it's just not that's not something I can personally just Suzanne Cervenka speaking, I can't support that. Because he just you just have to be able to, you know, we're not going to have journalists, if they can't afford to pay their rent, or, you know, if they eventually want to, to pay their mortgage, if they can't afford to buy groceries or pay the electric bill. So I mean, we're fighting for all of us, but we're also fighting for the future.
Thank you. Yeah, I that I just imagine that that's a an incredible point of tension, because it is it is very tempting, especially as when you work so hard, you you grind for this to eke out a deal and, you know, then they dangle some kind of, you know, well, you can take all this progress that you've made, but it only comes if you you know, neglect the the generations coming forward or after you and so I imagine that that's a tough thing to negotiate or navigate among your, your co workers and it might be an easy wedge to drive them apart, especially those who are or are particularly struggling and need that win. And don't have the luxury of waiting for a better deal. I imagine that can be pretty tough. Just want to throw jack or Melanie, if you want to add anything to that, because I was gonna move on after this, but any any other thoughts?
Um, I will just say that the benefit of having a union now is that we're not as strong as we are being together, um, between different newsrooms and the reader working together and getting towards that first contract, which would be huge, like Suzanna said to, you know, create the stability in the local communities for the new for journalism there. But it's also valuable that we do have the guilds to help us in terms of providing those resources that otherwise we wouldn't have. So, you know, lawyers, people that know all this stuff that we just don't are unaware of. And that's incredibly valuable. So I'll just just wanted to add that.
Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Before we move on, I just want to encourage everybody who is listening in right now or watching to drop some q&a in the q&a feature here, drop your questions here. I know, I've been spamming the chat with a bunch of links that I hoarded in preparation for this panel is very excited. So I encourage you to check out all of those I've been trying to pull out relevant quotes and statistics and studies. I just want to show one more. And while I'm doing this, I want everybody to that's I want to go to the q&a feature and drop any questions you have for our panelists. I just want to show them the screen share real quick want to show this awesome digital media unionization timeline from cultural workers organized.org. I assume you all can see this. Now, this is so cool. As somebody was literally in charge of products and events here for the center. I'm going to steal this style here. But I urge you just click on this link here that I'm going to drop in the chat right now. And scroll down and look just how, how many unionization newsroom unionization efforts have gone on over the last decade or so or less, five years or so. And the gannet unions are mentioned in here, when we get all the way down to 2021. I just want to really urge everybody to take a look at this amazing timeline, and just see how much movement there is around. I mean, did you hear about the John Deere strikes, you know, about IRC, or IRC going on right now? I hope I assume, but it's also going on in journalism, it's going on in newsrooms across the country, it's picking up speed. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired at work. And it's really it's manifesting here in, in the flesh in New Jersey and across the country. So take a look at this, because this will give you a really good oop, nope, it doesn't give you a decent understanding of just the scope of this of the activity and the movement around these around these issues here. I'm still going and I'm not even come to the New Jersey News Commons yet. Nope, nope. It's a picture of you all. That's why I'm stopping every time here. But as we go through here, I do just want to, I just want to pivot a little bit and talk a little bit about some of the what's what's going for what's next. What's happening. I know, we just talked about the contract negotiations are undergoing are underway, or at least starting to bud. What are your hopes for this process? individually? We'll start with Jack and then we'll go to Melanie and Suzanne, what are your hopes? What was the best case scenario? What does a successful unionization drive? Or at least the aftermath of this drive? What is the success look like for you all? And, you know, what are some of the challenges you think your obstacles that you think you might encounter that you're preparing for? Again, no, wanting me to give any strategy or whatever. But, you know, with your best judgment here, what what do you see as your north star here? And what are you hoping for?
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of the stuff that we're fighting for is not a secret. I think it's very open. I think it's true with every newsroom. You know, obviously, it's stuff with fair wages and stuff. And specifically with us, again, the.is, we went from working for, you know, two or three newsrooms at most, for a lot of us, too. I now work for eight cover eight papers in New Jersey, two of which are two of gannets highest performing sites in the country. They're considered, you know, tier one sites, and I did not get a raise to accompany the fact that I'm doing, you know, five times the work at minimum. So I think, you know, that's a very obvious thing for a lot of people, you know, people want better health care they want raw, obviously, you know, the first thing is going to be the one just cause, like, you know, all these different things that are very standard and all these contracts. But you know, on the broader scale of these things, I think people want to be able to have a say, in their appointment. I know, we keep saying it all the time. But I think that's just such a common current through all of this is that we're sick of, you know, not having any say in what's going on. We're about the thing we tell people all the time is, you know, people you'll you'll hear, Oh, why should I do this, like, we might not change anything, or whatever, like, the only way it could change right now, is it stays the same, or it gets worse by us taking, you know, taking a leap. Really, you know, it's a scary thing to do, you know, you're theoretically inviting bosses to look at you differently, or whatever it is, you know, being afraid of retaliation on that front, but as of right now, they can do whatever they want to you right now. And now that, you know, we're certified and fighting for kind of over that, you know, we're gonna start working towards this contract. And to that point of fears and stuff I know specifically with the DoD again, you know, we faced a pretty hardcore anti union fight in between us going public and as our certification vote In a lot of people getting one on one phone calls where they would trade off same tired, you know, anti union talking points, we knew they were coming so much so that we had bingo cards made up, we had people winning double, triple bingo on these cards, because you know, they tried out the same things. But it's if you're maybe not super hardcore about it, it can scare you. And it scared some people and we and we don't blame anybody. It's it's a scary thing to go stand up it even if it's a smaller local shop, already kind of unnerving. But now you're doing this against the largest local newspaper chain in the country like yeah, I could, I would don't blame anybody who's concerned about what that reaction is. But, you know, we kind of buckled down and we're ready to be, you know, this is a scary thing. But it's a worthwhile thing. It's a worthwhile risk. And we're confident that by standing together and collecting all of us under one umbrella and working with one another, we can win everything that we want and deserve. Really, it's like, it's almost less about what we want. And this is what we deserve. We've been mistreated for so long. I mean, I'm saying so long, I've worked in journals, but two plus years, and even then I've been pulled out of a newsroom. It doesn't take very long for you to come to terms with the fact that you're not being treated correctly in this industry. But it's a worthwhile one. And oh, Susanna, Melanie will touch on how important local news is. And news in general, and we can't, nobody can afford for us to be treated this way, not the workers, not the people we work for. In terms of, you know, the public, not our bosses, our bosses can afford to give us more money, that one is 100% true. We will talk about that as all as long and as often as you would like, you know, it makes a ton of money. They love to talk about how much money they make, they don't love to talk about a little bit less.
Well said, Melanie, you wanna you want to chime in? Yeah,
so I guess, the immediate, or like, I guess the bare minimum that we would love to see is, you know, a living wage for reporters, job security in a in a first contract security. So you're not worrying whether or not you're gonna get laid off. Or, you know, if that happens, you have the support to get the best kind of severance, or what have you to move on. So that's the bare minimum to have a contract and stability and a living wage. I think the long term goal for me, what I'm incredibly passionate about is, you know, supporting ways to improve diversity, equity, inclusion in newspapers. So if we can find a way to get management to agree to certain concrete terms on paper with terms of diversity goals, with timelines and things like that, that would be my, that would be the best outcome in my eyes. If you do some research, nationally, the net has refused to do that in a lot of instances. So maybe we can be the first who knows. So something like that would be great. And yeah, I think, collectively, if we can do this, and we can create that stability in our newsrooms in our region, then we can just push for better journalism, you know, so reporters can just focus on their day to day on creating sources on being engaged with communities, on doing their jobs, which is what we should be focused on, you know, not all of this, even though we're all really excited to be doing this now. So I think that's the gist of what I have to say.
It would be nice if you could worry less about having to secure your own financial stability and dignity and work with maybe focus on covering and serving the communities that that you're involved in. That wouldn't be great. Thank you so much. I do want to go to q&a. Now. I see one question in the chat here. Did I wait, did I did I just skip? No. Right, Melanie? So then you're good. Okay, I want to go to q&a. I'm Simon Galperin wants to know How can readers and community members support unionization? And how can unions lead to more engaged journalism? Simon is also a student of the house that Craig built. So I'm sure he's eager to hear about engaged journalism. And again, I encourage everybody to drop your questions in the chat for our panelists. We have about 10 minutes left to go. So I want to get to as many as possible, but anybody can take that one. Go ahead. What can community members how can community members support unionization efforts at newsrooms?
Well, some of them is just you know, let our let gonna corporate management. The are the leaders of our sites know that you support a union as newsroom they had a number of people went through our organizing campaigns and emails to our editors to Mike Reed who's been at CEO to let them know that you support you know, the unionized newsrooms. The news guilds own our research has shown that the unionized newsrooms have fewer gaps or less as smaller gaps between in pay equity between for women and racial pay, pay equity. It's you know, those are all those are all so important to have. Because if you know everyone has a different everyone has a different experience. Everyone has a different background. And when you have that background, it was just
a union. That's the sound of you. work happening in the background right there?
What's the sound of my mom, who was also a union member
moms are definitely a force for good in the unionization movement, I can attest to that. Continue sorry.
That's great. So, you know, speak up, let them know. When you we have our ATP MC J guild is our Twitter handle, you know, retweet us, you know, tweet at Mike read tweet at our editors, let them know that you've support a unionized newsroom.
Yeah. Jack, Melanie, anything dad?
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's pretty much it. I would also say, you know, I don't think there are there times when it comes up, you know, and like, obviously, we're far away from any of that stuff, we'll hear like, you know, Oh, you guys are thinking about going on strike straight and my subscription, we would generally say no, but you know, continue to support your local news. I mean, that's, that is also all of our livelihoods at the end of the day, as well, you know, um, you can prove that we are, you know, quote, unquote, worth it. We know where we're 50, you know, so surprising, it's supporting your local news in and of itself also supports us on because we just continues to show them that we know we're valuable to our communities. And now they the record, and as we press in the last, like, you know, a month and change have hit pretty significant milestones in terms of subscribers, which like, cool, getting connect gets more money, but more so for us, like, you know, looking at it from our angles, like, Now, these are people who care about the work that we do. I mean, these are the people that we're helping, and these are the people that, you know, we're under serving to some degree, because we are not, you know, adequately staffed or paid or anything like
that. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough because on the one hand readers, at least in organizations, or newsrooms that aren't cooperatively owned, and governed, only really have one lever to pull and if they even our subscribers, and then at the same time, it's, it's it sucks, because then you can, you can already hear it like, it looks subscriptions are down, we can't give you more money, because, you know. So I mean, we could this whole nother conversation, hopefully for the next local news summit about cooperatively owned, you know, worker owned organizations that I'd love to have with all of you, Melanie, do anything you want to add to how community members and readers can support unionization efforts?
Yeah, I would say reach out to our bosses, tweet, email call cyberbullying Absolutely.
Let them know that you support journalists, and you support their reporters, and you support the reporting. You know, if you email a journalist or a reporter, I'm sure I can speak for Suzanne and Jack in the situation, if we get an email from someone with a genuine concern, we will respond, we will look into it, we will do those things. So if you reach out to our bosses and let them know, you know, we support a unionized newsroom, we want to see these things or you know, if you've been a longtime reader, remind them of the things that we had a year ago or two years ago and tell them you want it back. You know, if that's how we can prove our worth no, even though we know we're worth a lot more than what we've been getting over the past few years. But it all helps us and in our fight to you know, get these contracts that these, you know, just make drama better.
Thank you. I just we are at eight or seven minutes left, but I just want to remind our panelists, actually, you are able to answer some of the q&a is by typing out the answers. I'm going to do a quick combination here. We have an anonymous question. Are you all in contract negotiations currently? And Josie wants to know, have you included the right to strike? So I'll let real quick, just rapid fire then why don't want to get to these last two questions. One from Rebecca, and then one from Josie. And then of course, if you have time, I hope you can indulge Simon in the chat. He wants to talk about the second half of his question. But let's start with Are you on contract, negotiate securely? And have you included the right to strike? Whichever order? We'll start with Suzanne?
Hi. So we are just the beginning of our contract negotiations. Some of the right to strike situation,
another union warrior in the background?
With the with the right to strike? That is a I mean, that if that's not something that we are saying right now, I mean, I guess we're hope we're really excited to join gonna join in at CNET the union to the negotiating table, where really, you know, optimistic that we're going to have some really great results. Could that be something down the line? Technically, there is but we're, that's I mean,
we don't have to do it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We're really looking forward
that the company will realize that we're all in the same. We all have the same goal of we all have the same goal of, you know, doing what we can to support local journalists.
Josie chiming in and chatting if the right to strike is not a central component. The union has no tech or teeth. I'm sorry. No teeth. I just fairpoint Josie, I'm sure
what I would say. Yeah, what I would say to that is we would never take some something off the table for ourselves that we would need, you know, we're maybe not going to commit to something one way or the other. But we would never, you know, willfully, you know, defend ourselves. I got your I get your point, though. God for sure. But yeah, we would not get
under federal labor law that is an option that we have. Okay. We're really optimistic though that, you know, we can come to something
fantastic, Melanie, anything real quick. We got four minutes.
I think they answered that pretty well. Perfect. Okay.
Last two questions here. And again, I encourage all three of you to you know, remain in the chat during the break. I can even leave you on as panelists in silence during the break so you can continue to type out the answers to the questions but if you have places to go stories to cover don't worry about it all will follow up and have people follow up. One thing from Rebecca Aguilar or Aguilar, I'm sorry, Rebecca hope I didn't butcher that. She says she's the president of the Society of Professional Journalists. How can establish journalism organizations like SBJ, or IRA? Oh, na, na, HJ Na, BJ, etc. Help unions improve working conditions for journalists? So how can the trade associations chime in and help?
So I know, in our discussions, as far as you know, improving diversity, equity inclusion and teaming up with this specific organizations, you know, like an A, like an Nhi, that would be great, because they have the resources and the wherewithal to provide, you know, a pipeline to get more journalists from different backgrounds into that. So that's one way that that could improve. I'm actually part of SBJ to New Jersey, the NJ SBJ. So I think as PJ just showing your support and saying that you support new unions, because I know historically, at SBJ, you try to stay out of it, because you don't want to be in the middle of things. However, I don't think this is about being in the middle of it. I think it's also just about supporting better journalism. So I think just connecting with the unions and talking to them and seeing where you can help them with in terms of resources and help. So that's how I would say that.
Anybody want to add to that? We got three minutes. Okay. All right. Finally, Josie wants to know, when newsrooms were staffed not fully for that never happens. were marginalized communities being covered more and deeper, so does more have more robust staff? And presumably one that is representative of those communities? I don't know if we've ever seen that necessarily. But would it? Would it be would it follow that more fully staffed, robust, newsrooms would better cover and deeper and provide deeper coverage of those communities that the assumption?
I don't want to say? So? Yes. Going forward? I think so. Because right now, in our newsroom, we have communities that just don't have a reporter that cover them. Yes, because it's a myth in the past. Yeah. So I say it's past we did all this wonderful stuff. But now we more reporters would mean we'd have like, right now we have towns that we don't, that are we don't have reporters to cover. We I'm struggling to know if we have a any there are communities in our coverage area. We don't have we don't have reporters who speak languages for some of the communities in our, in our coverage area. So for example, Asbury Park Press has a very large Orthodox Jewish community, you know, we'd be helpful if we had someone who might, you know, be able to speak Hebrew. We might, you know, we have a very large Portuguese community and also a Haitian community. We don't have anyone that speaks Portuguese, we don't have anyone who speaks you know, Creole. We don't have you know, I don't we don't have a strong Spanish speaking reporter right now. So those are just it's an
opportunity for collaboration right there. I was gonna say we got people in the chat here saying we got other resources and reporters out there who I'm sure would love to work with you all.
So I mean, so when we're hiring, one of the things that we want to push for is to make sure that you know, hey, we know people we know we were all in OMA and SBJ and ire when your hivers or
the Center for Cooperative Media NJ News Commons as well as Yeah, exactly.
But we but we can push for those things, too. And we one of the things we hope for and hope the company does, that we want to do and we hope the company does take us up on it is to you know, like bring us in on the hiring process because we do know people we do know you know, we do have these organizations were a part of and maybe love allowing us to help you recruit. We'll, you know, bring in that more diverse community.
All right, I'll have to leave it there. I hear the music coming in for our break. Thank you so much to our panelists. We're gonna go on a 15 minute break. Suzanne. Melanie, Jack, this has been fantastic. I cannot wait to follow up with you. I hope you follow up with Simon and the folks who are in the chat. I didn't get a chance to get to your questions. I apologize. I wish this was long. I could talk about this for hours. We'll be back at 315. We'll see you for the rest of local news Summit. We got some great stuff. We got lightning talks. We got all kinds of great stuff coming up. So folks, thank you again, appreciate it. And we will see you in 15 minutes. All right.
