Save the SJ-R

Union Yes!!

South Bend Tribune News Staff Move To Form Union Staff members of the South Bend Tribune requested the National Labor Relations Board oversee a union election next month.

This doesn't look good for the SJ-R's remaining workers, its readers and the general public in Springfield, Illinois, and surrounding communities.

Gannett-GateHouse merger will help investors, harm journalists, union report says - Indianapolis Business Journal The country's leading newspaper union issued a scathing analysis of the proposed Gannett-GateHouse merger Friday, saying the deal would drive down wages and employment for journalists at hundreds of newspapers. The merger will affect a dozen newspapers in Indiana.

Here's the interview that Dean Olsen did this morning with
News/Talk 94.7 & 970 WMAY about today's Day of Action

Interview with Dean Olsen 10/10/2019 Mid-West Family Broadcasting - Mid-West Family Broadcasting operates 4 radio stations in Springfield, Illinois. WMAY, WNNS, WQLZ, WUSW.

Preserve Our Local News (@PreserveNews) | Twitter

Please support unionized newsroom employees at The State Journal-Register on Thursday, Oct. 10, by stopping by the SJ-R to pick up a flyer during the noon hour on the NewsGuild-CWA’s Day of Action to “Preserve Our Local News” at GateHouse Media newspapers.

The SJ-R employees, who are part of the Springfield (IL) Unit of the United Media Guild, will be on the sidewalk along Ninth Street in front of the newspaper offices at Ninth and Capitol Avenue from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday to pass out flyers and greet the public. Supporters can walk to the sidewalk or honk their support while driving by.

Thursday’s event will be one of more than 50 at GateHouse papers across 14 states.

The flyers decry GateHouse Media’s aggressive program of layoffs and cost-cutting as the company prepares for a potential merger with the Gannett Corp. GateHouse says there will be up to $300 million in additional cuts and “synergies” following the merger.

“The cuts will result in massive layoffs, and they will severely damage the newspapers’ ability to function as a watchdog over local governments and institutions,” NewsGuild President Bernie Lunzer said. “They will drastically curtail the papers’ ability to tell the stories of their communities.”

Lunzer said NewsGuild members and their colleagues in the Guild’s parent union, The Communications Workers of America, will urge readers to tell Mike Reed, CEO of GateHouse’s parent company, New Media Investment Group, to “hold the line on corporate greed and put local journalism first.”

Flyers will be distributed at papers that employ workers represented by The NewsGuild and those without union representation.

In addition to the event in Springfield, NewsGuild members at the Rockford Register Star will distribute flyers at the same time outside the paper at 99 E. State St. in Rockford.

“When journalism suffers, communities suffer,” Lunzer said. “We have seen far too many newspapers savaged by GateHouse cutbacks already. We intend to stand up for quality journalism and to work with readers to do so.”

Dean Olsen, a veteran SJ-R reporter and chairman of the Springfield unit of the United Media Guild, said The State Journal-Register’s journalists in recent years have had to work harder than ever amid drastic staff reductions when GateHouse either laid off staff members or opted not to replace workers who left.

“We need the community’s support to preserve the staff that remains, and expand the staff, because everyone suffers when the press struggles to perform its role in holding local politicians, governments and institutions responsible,” Olsen said.

The public can send an email
to Mike Reed, CEO of GateHouse’s parent company, by going to bit.ly/preservelocalnews.

The public can keep up with the Preserve Our Local News campaign’s progress on Twitter at twitter.com/preservenews and under these hashtags: and . Updates also will be available on the United Media Guild Springfield Unit’s page at http://tinyurl.com/SJ-Rguild and at http://www.springfieldguild.wordpress.com.

Preserve Our Local News (@PreserveNews) | Twitter

Go Guild! Support the dedicated journalists at the Miami Herald, the fourth Florida newspaper newsroom to move forward with a unionizing effort. The three others succeeded -- they are in Jacksonville, Sarasota and Lakeland -- and we're confident that this one will, too.

One Herald Guild The union of el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald to advocate for our staff and benefit coverage of our community.