Press

NEW YORK – Unionized journalists at TIME have won a new three-year contract that includes strong guardrails on artificial intelligence, more flexible time off, and higher salary floors, among other benefits.  

NEW YORK – Unionized staff at investigative nonprofit newsroom ProPublica walked off the job Wednesday in a one-day strike, setting up picket lines outside the company’s New York City headquarters, as well as in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

The members of The New Yorker Union, Ars Technica Union, and Pitchfork Union are pleased to welcome the editorial staff of WIRED to the NewsGuild family, which includes such esteemed publications as The New York Times, Reuters, New York Magazine, BuzzFeed News, and many more. 

This week, we learned that BuzzFeed will be suspending production of our news show AM to DM, as well as another show that was in development, as a result of Twitter’s decision to stop providing funding for the projects. This is a devastating blow to our colleagues on the production teams who are losing their jobs, and a huge loss for the newsroom.

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti today announced plans to reduce salaries across the company in anticipation of the industry-wide financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith announced today that he'll be leaving BuzzFeed in March. 

When Daily Beast management – led by our new corporate partners Ben Sherwood and Joanna Coles – informed us several weeks ago they were looking to slash staff in our newsroom, our bargaining team went right to work.

We successfully negotiated a robust buyout plan for our members, giving them the chance to decide for themselves if they wanted to leave the company. Twenty-five unit members, or roughly 70 percent of our unit, applied for the buyout. Our members now have a seven-day window to accept the buyout or rescind their application, which will mean the total number of members who choose to leave could change.

We have also won job security for unit members who choose to stay with the Company. Because we expect to exceed $1.5 million in payroll savings through the buyouts, unit members will be protected from any layoffs through Dec. 31, 2024.

We have also struck a tentative two-year collective bargaining agreement with the Company that benefits all of our members, whether they are choosing to take a buyout or staying. We have achieved retroactive pay increases from January 1 for all members. For members who are staying, the contract lifts wages for the lowest earners by at least 4% in 2024 (4.5% in 2025); mid-range earners by 2.5% in 2024 and 3% in 2025; higher-paid earners by 1% in 2024 and 1.5% in 2025; and top-paid workers by .5% in both years.

We have been in the driver's seat of this process since Sherwood and Coles arrived at the Beast. We have battled with Company lawyers, demanded information in the face of uncertainty, and have won the fight for our colleagues to design their own futures. The security and dignity we’ve afforded our colleagues affirms that our work is valuable and empowering. No matter how many members accept the buyout, our work as a Union will continue. Managers come and go, but we, the Daily Beast Union, are here to stay.

From the NYTimes:  More than 100 New York Times workers and their supporters protested outside The Times’s Manhattan headquarters on Tuesday, accusing the company of delaying contract talks.