California Media Workers Guild members dominated the 2009 NorCal Society of Professional Journalists awards at Jillian's in San Francisco Tuesday night, showing once again that the best journalism is produced by Guild members.
Eleven awards were captured by Guild members from the Chronicle, Mercury News and MediaNews papers, including one of the evening's top honors -- the Career Achievement Award, given to longtime Chronicle journalist and Guild activist Susan Sward.
Sward, who left the Chronicle this summer, was an award-winning reporter at the paper for 30 years, during which she covered nearly every beat. She is perhaps best known for her work on the investigative team and as a breaking news reporter. But Susan contributed much more to the Chronicle than her stories, and the SPJ award recognized that.
The judges praised Sward for her work mentoring young journalists, particularly women, and for her role in persuading the Chronicle to adopt policies making it easier for new mothers and fathers to continue to work as journalists while raising families. (The Hearst Corp., taking advantage of the newspaper crisis, has unraveled those family-friendly policies since taking over the Chronicle.)
Sward was gracious in accepting the award, thanking colleague David Perlman, the Chronicle's veteran science writer, and Steve Cook, the paper's former investigative editor.
Other California Media Workers Guild journalists receiving awards include:
-- Charles Piller, Sacramento Bee, economic journalism award, for reporting on who profited from the federal bailout.
-- Sean Webby, San Jose Mercury News, investigative reporting and public service awards, for a year-long series on how San Jose's public drunkenness crackdown disproportionately targeted Latinos.
-- Geoff Link, San Francisco Chronicle copy editor, Unsung Hero award, for his other job -- as editor and publisher of Central City Extra, a monthly newspaper for the often-ignored residents of San Francisco's Tenderloin, Civic Center and Sixth Street neighborhoods.
-- Oakland Tribune staff, breaking news award, for its coverage of the Oscar Grant shooting .
-- Nanette Asimov and Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, explanatory journalism, for a special report tracking the 1995-96 graduates of a kindergarten class in a lower-income neighborhood and school.
-- Meredith May, San Francisco Chronicle, feature writing award, for a story on a Bay Area woman helping to combat the Nepalese practice of bonded servitude of girls.
-- Karen D'Souza, San Jose Mercury News, criticism award, for three theater reviews.
-- Oakland Tribune and Bay Area.com staffs, innovation and entrepreneurship award, for ther presentation of news on multiple platforms.
-- Dai Sugano, San Jose Mercury News, photojournalism, for a photo essay and multimedia project documenting the lives of people left out of most reporting on India's economic boom.
A complete list of award winners can be viewed here.
Congratulations to all the award winners, but especially members of the Media Workers Guild for demonstrating that the Bay Area's best journalism still comes from union journalists, who are better paid and get such things as health insurance, vacations,paid holidays and a say in their workplace.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
New directions, new opportunities
A lot of Guild members are asking questions, which, of course is what media folks do best,about The News Project – the innovative Bay Area newsgathering collaboration funded by Warren Hellman.
They’re wondering whether the new news organization will lead to, or hasten, the demise of the San Francisco Chronicle. They’re asking whether the Bay Area needs another newsgathering outfit when the ones that are here are struggling. And some are asking why the Guild would be involved in such an effort.
Many, it should be noted, are also sending their resumes.
But first, a little background. The News Project, and the Guild's involvement, started with a threat. On Feb.24, Chronicle publisher Frank Vega stood in front of employees and announced that unless the unions bargained significant concessions, the paper would be sold – or closed. And even if they did their part (again) to help save the Chronicle, it still might be sold.
That threat sent the Guild to the bargaining table. But it angered a lot of
people. When some of our members asked how they could help, we assigned a couple of them to contact community leaders and ask for support if the paper were shuttered. We also asked if any of those leaders might be interested in buying the Chronicle if it were put on the block.
Those contacts led to meetings, which led to studies, which led to plans, many of which were abandoned or modified, and eventually led to Thursday’s announcement of the new non-profit news organization, which will produce news for multiple platforms, possibly including a regional edition of the New York Times.
The Guild got involved for a lot of reasons. We didn’t want San Francisco to be left without a journalistically strong newsgathering operation. We didn’t want even more of our members to have to give up their professional careers. And we wanted somebody to try something bold, truly new, and journalistically strong.
The News Project promises that, though many, many details are still forthcoming.
Now for those other questions. Will the new organization accelerate The Chronicle’s demise? Well, that’s up to the Chronicle, and the Hearst Corp. My hope -- as both a Chronicle staffer and a Guild official –- is that it will actually do the opposite, that it will prompt the Chronicle to improve its journalism just as it recently improved its printing – or at least stop gutting its news staff.
I’d like to think that Hearst has some fight in it, and will step up to the challenge.
Will competition renew public interest in journalism? It’s possible. More competition will lead to better news coverage, and better products, be they online, on the air, or in print, that could lure more advertising and the kinds of demographics that attract advertisers. As less gets covered, there’s less reason to read,subscribe to, or advertise in, newspapers.
The News Project will also create more journalism jobs, allowing some of the incredibly talented folks who have been pushed out of Bay Area newsrooms to get back in the business. It may not be a lot of jobs, but it will be a significant number, and it's likely to grow.
Finally, some folks have asked why the Guild would support the creation of a competitor. Well, we’ve always represented (and supported) competitors to the Chronicle: the (Hearst) Examiner, the Oakland Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, the former ANG papers.
As new models for journalism are developed, we want to make sure they involve quality journalism – and decent wages and benefits. Many of the new journalism experiments count on people giving away their work for free or for very little compensation. We think journalists and other mediaworkers, not to mention our readers, deserve better.
We want the news industry to thrive – not surrender -- and we want it to be union.
They’re wondering whether the new news organization will lead to, or hasten, the demise of the San Francisco Chronicle. They’re asking whether the Bay Area needs another newsgathering outfit when the ones that are here are struggling. And some are asking why the Guild would be involved in such an effort.
Many, it should be noted, are also sending their resumes.
But first, a little background. The News Project, and the Guild's involvement, started with a threat. On Feb.24, Chronicle publisher Frank Vega stood in front of employees and announced that unless the unions bargained significant concessions, the paper would be sold – or closed. And even if they did their part (again) to help save the Chronicle, it still might be sold.
That threat sent the Guild to the bargaining table. But it angered a lot of
people. When some of our members asked how they could help, we assigned a couple of them to contact community leaders and ask for support if the paper were shuttered. We also asked if any of those leaders might be interested in buying the Chronicle if it were put on the block.
Those contacts led to meetings, which led to studies, which led to plans, many of which were abandoned or modified, and eventually led to Thursday’s announcement of the new non-profit news organization, which will produce news for multiple platforms, possibly including a regional edition of the New York Times.
The Guild got involved for a lot of reasons. We didn’t want San Francisco to be left without a journalistically strong newsgathering operation. We didn’t want even more of our members to have to give up their professional careers. And we wanted somebody to try something bold, truly new, and journalistically strong.
The News Project promises that, though many, many details are still forthcoming.
Now for those other questions. Will the new organization accelerate The Chronicle’s demise? Well, that’s up to the Chronicle, and the Hearst Corp. My hope -- as both a Chronicle staffer and a Guild official –- is that it will actually do the opposite, that it will prompt the Chronicle to improve its journalism just as it recently improved its printing – or at least stop gutting its news staff.
I’d like to think that Hearst has some fight in it, and will step up to the challenge.
Will competition renew public interest in journalism? It’s possible. More competition will lead to better news coverage, and better products, be they online, on the air, or in print, that could lure more advertising and the kinds of demographics that attract advertisers. As less gets covered, there’s less reason to read,subscribe to, or advertise in, newspapers.
The News Project will also create more journalism jobs, allowing some of the incredibly talented folks who have been pushed out of Bay Area newsrooms to get back in the business. It may not be a lot of jobs, but it will be a significant number, and it's likely to grow.
Finally, some folks have asked why the Guild would support the creation of a competitor. Well, we’ve always represented (and supported) competitors to the Chronicle: the (Hearst) Examiner, the Oakland Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, the former ANG papers.
As new models for journalism are developed, we want to make sure they involve quality journalism – and decent wages and benefits. Many of the new journalism experiments count on people giving away their work for free or for very little compensation. We think journalists and other mediaworkers, not to mention our readers, deserve better.
We want the news industry to thrive – not surrender -- and we want it to be union.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tough times in Guild land
The mood here at the 74th annual convention of The Newspaper Guild in Washington, D.C., is, as you might imagine, rather stressed and somewhat somber. I'm here with local rep Carl T. Hall and local vice president Silvia Barden, and 107 other union activists from 38 Guild locals across the country.
Everyone seems tired and frustrated -- of bargaining pay cuts, furloughs and saying goodbye to the endless stream of talented newspaper workers our employers are shoving out the door. We're sharing our experiences in hopes of helping each other survive this firestorm. And were all hoping, of course, to find some glimmer of hope amid the gloom.
I spent about four hours Friday afternoon on two panels recounting and, unfortunately, reliving, the events that started with Frank Vega's Feb. 24 threat to close the newspaper, and will end, well, sometime at the end of the summer, when the last of the people laid off in this most recent brutal round of job cuts walk out the doors of 901 Mission Street.
As painful as it was to recount those agonizing days at the bargaining table, and waiting for the layoff axe to fall, it made me realize that it was time to blog again. Frankly, I'd been avoiding it since February because I was burnt out, bummed out and couldn't think of much worth writing.
The panel was called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Concessionary Bargaining," and I realized that there were indeed good things that came out of our lousy agreement to amend the contract.
-- We saved the San Francisco Chronicle from being shut down or sold.
-- We reduced the number of job losses.
-- We ensured that everyone who left the paper, voluntarily or involuntarily, got some severance pay and health coverage.
-- We preserved hundreds of newspaper jobs with decent pay and benefits.
Those accomplishments, of course, came at a steep price, including the loss of seniority protections, something that cost many talented Chronicle staffers their jobs. And the concessions will make it tougher for those of us who remain.
But we did what union members do best. We made a difficult decision in the best interest of the majority of our Guild colleagues. I'm proud of that decision, and proud of our members at the Chronicle, as well as those at the Sacramento and Modesto Bees, who made similar sacrifices.
The Guild convention continues Saturday, and much of the focus will be on discussing ways we can move forward. The emphasis is on preserving -- or creating -- decent jobs for journalists, regardless of whether the stories appear in print, online or on cell phones or other gadgets.
As Guild President Bernie Lunzer said during his opening speech: "The future of news is in the frontline worker."
Everyone seems tired and frustrated -- of bargaining pay cuts, furloughs and saying goodbye to the endless stream of talented newspaper workers our employers are shoving out the door. We're sharing our experiences in hopes of helping each other survive this firestorm. And were all hoping, of course, to find some glimmer of hope amid the gloom.
I spent about four hours Friday afternoon on two panels recounting and, unfortunately, reliving, the events that started with Frank Vega's Feb. 24 threat to close the newspaper, and will end, well, sometime at the end of the summer, when the last of the people laid off in this most recent brutal round of job cuts walk out the doors of 901 Mission Street.
As painful as it was to recount those agonizing days at the bargaining table, and waiting for the layoff axe to fall, it made me realize that it was time to blog again. Frankly, I'd been avoiding it since February because I was burnt out, bummed out and couldn't think of much worth writing.
The panel was called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Concessionary Bargaining," and I realized that there were indeed good things that came out of our lousy agreement to amend the contract.
-- We saved the San Francisco Chronicle from being shut down or sold.
-- We reduced the number of job losses.
-- We ensured that everyone who left the paper, voluntarily or involuntarily, got some severance pay and health coverage.
-- We preserved hundreds of newspaper jobs with decent pay and benefits.
Those accomplishments, of course, came at a steep price, including the loss of seniority protections, something that cost many talented Chronicle staffers their jobs. And the concessions will make it tougher for those of us who remain.
But we did what union members do best. We made a difficult decision in the best interest of the majority of our Guild colleagues. I'm proud of that decision, and proud of our members at the Chronicle, as well as those at the Sacramento and Modesto Bees, who made similar sacrifices.
The Guild convention continues Saturday, and much of the focus will be on discussing ways we can move forward. The emphasis is on preserving -- or creating -- decent jobs for journalists, regardless of whether the stories appear in print, online or on cell phones or other gadgets.
As Guild President Bernie Lunzer said during his opening speech: "The future of news is in the frontline worker."
Monday, January 12, 2009
Fighting for the future
Twenty-eight hours is a long time to spend sitting on your butt in a cool hotel meeting room with bad acoustics.
But it was worth it. Leaders from The Newspaper Guild and the broadcasting and printing sectors of the Communications Workers of America met in wintry Baltimore for three long days of meetings to come up with ways to protect jobs and help save the news industry.
"It's really tough right now, and there's a lot of despair," said Guild President Bernie Lunzer. But we think if we work together, we can kill the despair with hope."
No, we didn't come up with a magical solution -- I wish we did-- but we did take several forward-looking steps. They include:
-- Establishing a task force to develop skills training programs for members.
-- Exploring non-traditional ownership arrangements -- including non-profit arrangements, employee stock option plans, public financial support, startups and hybrid models that combine traditional ownership and alternative approaches.
-- Launching community campaigns promoting the importance of journalism and newspapers.
-- Bargaining contract language that protects jobs.
-- Establishing cooperative relationships with management to find mutually beneficial solutions to make newspapers work.
Our new, merged California Media Workers Guild was well-represented with Media News mobilizers Carl Hall and Sara Steffens joining me, along with soon-departing Luther Jackson, former administrative officer of the San Jose Newspaper Guild, and Gloria LaRiva, head of our typographical sector. We were among 150 leaders from media unions in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.
I can only speak for myself, of course, but I left feeling tired and a bit hopeful. There's a lot of work ahead if we're going to try to save newspapers from themselves (And we'll need your help). But it feels good to be doing something other than whining, moping and cursing our owners -- and something more innovative than laying people off.
Now, it's time for me to get some sleep.
But it was worth it. Leaders from The Newspaper Guild and the broadcasting and printing sectors of the Communications Workers of America met in wintry Baltimore for three long days of meetings to come up with ways to protect jobs and help save the news industry.
"It's really tough right now, and there's a lot of despair," said Guild President Bernie Lunzer. But we think if we work together, we can kill the despair with hope."
No, we didn't come up with a magical solution -- I wish we did-- but we did take several forward-looking steps. They include:
-- Establishing a task force to develop skills training programs for members.
-- Exploring non-traditional ownership arrangements -- including non-profit arrangements, employee stock option plans, public financial support, startups and hybrid models that combine traditional ownership and alternative approaches.
-- Launching community campaigns promoting the importance of journalism and newspapers.
-- Bargaining contract language that protects jobs.
-- Establishing cooperative relationships with management to find mutually beneficial solutions to make newspapers work.
Our new, merged California Media Workers Guild was well-represented with Media News mobilizers Carl Hall and Sara Steffens joining me, along with soon-departing Luther Jackson, former administrative officer of the San Jose Newspaper Guild, and Gloria LaRiva, head of our typographical sector. We were among 150 leaders from media unions in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.
I can only speak for myself, of course, but I left feeling tired and a bit hopeful. There's a lot of work ahead if we're going to try to save newspapers from themselves (And we'll need your help). But it feels good to be doing something other than whining, moping and cursing our owners -- and something more innovative than laying people off.
Now, it's time for me to get some sleep.
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