Digital First Media Workers

NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 28, 2017

CONTACT: BERNIE LUNZER
PRESIDENT, THE NEWSGUILD-CWA
(202) 434-7175

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 28, 2017) — A broad coalition of 1,500 unionized news workers will conduct a joint day of action on May 3 — World Press Freedom Day — as part of a national campaign to protest the corporate-led assault on quality journalism.

The coordinated effort by NewsGuild members will span 29 newspapers owned by GateHouse Media and Digital First Media. It will support the fight for quality journalism at those papers and highlight the damage wrought by draconian cuts in their newsrooms and other departments. Continue reading “Guild workers at Digital First Media and GateHouse Media stand together against profiteering owners on World Press Freedom Day, May 3” →

Digital First Media rewards prize-winning work with layoffs

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA — Digital First Media, owner of the Bay Area News Group, plans to move copy desk work to Southern California, triggering 20 more layoffs from a shrunken roster of 92 Guild-represented employees in the East Bay.

The announcement came only a week after the East Bay news staff was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “relentless” breaking news coverage of the deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland.

Continue reading “The price of a Pulitzer” →

Financial managers at Alden Global Capital didn’t need to go far when searching for a place to park a few hundred million dollars of pension funds held on behalf of news workers at The Mercury News and Denver Post.

In fact, the fund managers decided the best choice was right in front of them: They invested the San Jose and Denver pension dollars in high-risk hedge funds controlled by their own company.

Continue reading “Newspaper chain DFM invests millions of pension dollars with its hedge-fund owner” →

DENVER — Employees at one of the nation’s biggest news organizations have joined to fight Wall Street’s ongoing attack on quality journalism.

Digital First Media is the second-largest chain of newspapers and online news sites in the country, and 12 union-represented DFM newspapers began bargaining for a wage increase on March 9.

Continue reading “Standing up for journalism at DFM papers around the country” →

Our surprising findings on where US newspapers owners stand, politically

By JULIE REYNOLDS

If you’ve ever wondered where the owners of America’s allegedly “liberal” newspapers actually fall on the political spectrum, we’ve got the info right here.

DFMworkers.org recently looked up the campaign contributions of the owners and top executives and shareholders of U.S. newspaper chains. The results surprised us, and maybe they’ll surprise you, too. Continue reading “POLITICS AND THE NEWS” →

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

WASHINGTON — Employees at one of the nation’s biggest news organizations are launching a campaign to fight Wall Street’s ongoing attack on quality journalism — a fight likely to intensify under the new Trump administration.

Members of The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America announced today a new phase of the #NEWSMATTERS campaign at Digital First Media (DFM), the second-largest chain of newspapers and online news sites in the country.

The campaign is aimed at resisting the slash-and-burn, asset-stripping strategy of Alden Global Capital, the secretive New York hedge fund that owns DFM.

Continue reading “Digital First Media workers launch campaign to fight attacks on journalism” →

By DENNIS TAYLOR

At the Mercury, a Digital First Media newspaper based in Pottstown, Pa., the newsroom once had 16 news-side reporters. Now it has four. The paper no longer has any photographers.

This type of downshifting is taking place in newsrooms all over the country, but appears to be more extreme at DFM papers. The few reporters who remain are now struggling to cover their own beats as well as several others, a phenomenon that carries unintended consequences for both news coverage and the mental and physical health of news workers.

Continue reading “THE CONSEQUENCES OF DOWNSIZING: Surviving news workers struggle under doubled workloads while communities lose coverage” →

Just when it seems no further downsizing is possible, the Digital First Media newspaper chain greeted employees in the first weeks of 2017 with more layoffs, elimination of positions and continued outsourcing of jobs.

Continue reading “More layoffs squeeze already strained DFM newspapers” →