New York Magazine Mission Statement

New York Magazine is a New York City institution and an essential voice in American journalism. We, the editorial staff, are proud to work at such a prestigious publication, and we want to ensure that New York Media continues to excel while valuing the contributions of all of its employees for years to come.

The New York brand is built upon the hard work of editors, writers, fact checkers, copy editors, photo editors, designers, producers, and social-media editors. Whether about culture, politics, fashion, or food, our reporting is consistently smart and engaging and is not afraid to question power. As the company grows, we believe our workplace should embody those values.

Currently, editorial staff members are often forced to choose between continuing the work they love at New York and finding a more tenable job elsewhere. For years, some employees have been paid well below media standards. Benefits constantly change and don’t meet our actual needs. Salaries vary significantly between people who hold the same position, and career development is either nonexistent or inadequate. Across the board, employees know the best chance to earn a raise or promotion is to get a job offer elsewhere. All of this only exacerbates an already troubling lack of diversity in our newsroom.

The precarity of our industry is well known, and job security is always an issue. We all feel enormous pride and investment in our positions here. But of course, pride and prestige do not on their own bring stability. We need that too.

To safeguard our rights as workers and sustain the magazine’s voice into the future, we have decided to form a union with the NewsGuild, which represents our peers at outlets that are producing some of today’s most important and vital journalism, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, and The Nation — and including newly unionized publications like The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The New Republic.

We believe that unionizing is the best way to address our grievances in the workplace and allow us to continue publishing stories as honest, gritty, and exceptional as this city. We hope that New York Media will recognize our union so that we can begin an amicable collective-bargaining process and build a stronger, more equitable company for another 50 years.