The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted inequities in many workplaces, while also providing workers with the flexibility of remote work. As workers look to address those inequities and protect the flexibility the pandemic has provided, I think more will turn to organized labor.
The past couple years have shown that journalists are more than willing to assert their power as a labor force for better working conditions. A Pew Research Center poll from earlier this year shows that one in six journalists are in a union and that 41% of others surveyed would join one if it was available.
Analysis from the Poynter Institute shows that across the country, union membership has declined over the past 40 years, but media industry efforts buck that trend.
For full transparency, my coworkers and I at the PBS NewsHour formed a union with SAG-AFTRA earlier this year that has since been recognized.
Union representation continues to be prevalent at larger news organizations, but we are also seeing smaller organizations’ employees banding together.
One indicator of the changing tide has popped up in two of the least unionized states — North and South Carolina — where in early December my former coworkers at WFAE in Charlotte became the first unionized public radio newsrooms in the Carolinas.
In South Carolina, two McClatchy owned papers have seen their newsroom staff organize: The Island Packet in Hilton Head and The State in Columbia.
Other states that fall in the bottom half of least unionized states — Texas, Idaho, Virginia, Florida and Indiana — also have newsrooms unionizing.
So, what are the driving forces that have and will likely continue to fuel journalists to organize? A common theme is pay equity, not just within their organizations but within the industry. A June 2022 Gallup poll showed that 65% of people cite better pay and benefits as their reason for joining a union.
The Department of Labor reports that union represented employees earn 17% more than non-unionized employees. Where non-union employees earn $975 a week, unionized employees are earning $1,169.
Employees are also looking for protection from job loss. Union contracts often provide standards for discipline and termination, and insure monetary payouts for severance.
Pew data found that layoffs at large news outlets in 2021 fell by three-fold when compared to 2020. But, recent layoffs at CNN and Gannett — which has laid off around 600 employees this year alone — have spotlighted the volatility of our industry and heightened worries of what these actions could be foreshadowing for the broader field.
Other reasons journalists have shared for why they are unionizing include improved diversity, equity and inclusion practices; employee representation at the decision making table; work/life balance; remote work policies; health care and other benefits.
Volatility in this industry shows no signs of shoring up, so it’s likely we will continue to see newsrooms and media workers organizing to create more favorable working conditions far into 2023 and beyond.
Matt Rasnic (he/him/they/them) is an associate producer and editor for social media at the PBS NewsHour.
The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted inequities in many workplaces, while also providing workers with the flexibility of remote work. As workers look to address those inequities and protect the flexibility the pandemic has provided, I think more will turn to organized labor.
The past couple years have shown that journalists are more than willing to assert their power as a labor force for better working conditions. A Pew Research Center poll from earlier this year shows that one in six journalists are in a union and that 41% of others surveyed would join one if it was available.
Analysis from the Poynter Institute shows that across the country, union membership has declined over the past 40 years, but media industry efforts buck that trend.
For full transparency, my coworkers and I at the PBS NewsHour formed a union with SAG-AFTRA earlier this year that has since been recognized.
Union representation continues to be prevalent at larger news organizations, but we are also seeing smaller organizations’ employees banding together.
One indicator of the changing tide has popped up in two of the least unionized states — North and South Carolina — where in early December my former coworkers at WFAE in Charlotte became the first unionized public radio newsrooms in the Carolinas.
In South Carolina, two McClatchy owned papers have seen their newsroom staff organize: The Island Packet in Hilton Head and The State in Columbia.
Other states that fall in the bottom half of least unionized states — Texas, Idaho, Virginia, Florida and Indiana — also have newsrooms unionizing.
So, what are the driving forces that have and will likely continue to fuel journalists to organize? A common theme is pay equity, not just within their organizations but within the industry. A June 2022 Gallup poll showed that 65% of people cite better pay and benefits as their reason for joining a union.
The Department of Labor reports that union represented employees earn 17% more than non-unionized employees. Where non-union employees earn $975 a week, unionized employees are earning $1,169.
Employees are also looking for protection from job loss. Union contracts often provide standards for discipline and termination, and insure monetary payouts for severance.
Pew data found that layoffs at large news outlets in 2021 fell by three-fold when compared to 2020. But, recent layoffs at CNN and Gannett — which has laid off around 600 employees this year alone — have spotlighted the volatility of our industry and heightened worries of what these actions could be foreshadowing for the broader field.
Other reasons journalists have shared for why they are unionizing include improved diversity, equity and inclusion practices; employee representation at the decision making table; work/life balance; remote work policies; health care and other benefits.
Volatility in this industry shows no signs of shoring up, so it’s likely we will continue to see newsrooms and media workers organizing to create more favorable working conditions far into 2023 and beyond.
Matt Rasnic (he/him/they/them) is an associate producer and editor for social media at the PBS NewsHour.
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
AX Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first