You've probably picked up on this by osmosis, but news media is in a truly dire state right nowāin a very real sense, it is being killed by people with names and addresses. Just in the past two days we've seen the Conde Nast walkout (in opposition to a proposal to cut 5% of the company's workforce) and over 100 layoffs at the Los Angeles Times; and that just scratches the surface. Since 2024 began layoffs have also hit TIME; Sports Illustrated and Pitchfork have seemingly been consigned to the dumpster as brands; and papers under the purview of hedge funds have seen difficulty being paid on time. All in all, a very bleak situation.
So it's no surprise that a wave of unionizations and new agreements have broken out in the media space. I haven't even had time to cover them all, they've come so fast. CQ Roll Call at the beginning of the year fighting to be recognized by their iconic masthead; the paper in Evansville, IN unionizing as Evansville News Guild; POLITICO's staff winning a new contract; High Country News demanding and not receiving voluntary recognition as HCN Union. And now two Texas publicationsāSan Antonio Report and the Texas Tribuneāhave joined in.
SA Report is a bit further along in the process hereāthey went public with their union last week or thereaboutsāand says it has 100% support within the newsroom. They've been denied voluntary recognition though and are filing for an NLRB election as of now. Support for unionization is at least 90% for the Texas Tribune, meanwhile, and although management has put out a lukewarm statement they seem more amenable to voluntary recognition than not. Both unions have also put out mission statements which I've attached to this post; the Texas Tribune's I think summarizes the desire of many journalists in these times: