Update, June 10:  With our contract set to expire in November, the BANG-East Bay bargaining committee is already preparing for upcoming negotiations. That means we need to hear what your goals and priorities are for our next agreement with the company.

You may have already received a copy of a bargaining survey from your shop steward. If not, your steward will be approaching you in the coming days to fill out a copy of this short, anonymous survey. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to complete and return this to your steward, and help our unit get ready for negotiations.

Also in this update:

• Online filing
• Membership clarification
• San Francisco Chronicle bargaining update
• Sacramento Bee tentative agreement
• Hawaii Newspaper Guild merger

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Update, Jan. 19: Last week, we all received an email from Dean Singleton stating that MediaNews has, in consultation with its lenders, created a “prepackaged” bankruptcy filing for its holding company, Affiliated Media Inc. Filing could come as early as this week.

The official documents and the resulting hearings should provide more details of the arrangement, including the new ownership structure, and what, if any, compensation Hearst will receive for relinquishing its stake in the company. In the meantime, MediaNews has promised that neither workers nor daily operations of our newspapers will be affected by the bankruptcy, and we intend to hold them at their word.

What the Guild is doing on our end:

The Newspaper Guild has represented workers at five newspaper company bankruptcies, and in every case, employees continue to work and get paid, noted Carol Rothman, secretary-treasurer of TNG. “None of the guild properties have been affected any more drastically than anyone who is not in bankruptcy,” said Rothman.

The Guild has hired a law firm that specializes in bankruptcy to monitor workers’ interests as the filing proceeds, and representatives across the country are gathering relevant financial information.

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By now you’ve all seen the news that MediaNews has, in consultation with its lenders, created a “prepackaged”  bankruptcy filing for its holding company, Affiliated Media Inc. That means instead of filing and then dealing with the debt afterward, there is already a plan to address the debts owed to creditors.

The company has said that daily newspaper operations will not be affected, and employees will continue to receive pay and benefits as usual. At this point, we have no reason to disbelieve these statements.

That said, we are taking the situation very seriously, seeking research and resources from the highest level of the Guild – and plan to hold the company to its promises. We have retained legal counsel with expertise in bankruptcy proceedings and will take all necessary steps to ensure our voice is heard and the interests of our members and retirees are protected.

Earlier this week our Newspaper Guild staff began pulling together research and resources on restructuring scenarios. Carol Rothman, the Guild’s secretary-treasurer, has made herself available to run through various scenarios related to the debt restructuring and to answer questions about what might happen next.

“The Guild, with help from CWA, has been proactive in addressing bankruptcies in our industry. Being named to the creditors’ committee in five cases is one example. We must get our members, locals and contracts through to the other end of this process, with some confidence that they can influence the results,” Rothman said.

It’s important to note that, unlike many of the high-profile media company bankruptcies, the company that operates our papers is not planning to file for bankruptcy reorganization.  Rather, the MediaNews holding company — Affiliated Media Inc. – is filing. In general, a holding company controls a company’s stock and oversees top management but does not run day-to-day operations. According to the company’s statements, the debt to be restructured is related largely to past purchases of newspapers, not bills to local vendors at individual properties.

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MediaNews papers will soon begin charging readers to view at least some online content, according to CEO Dean Singleton.

In an extensive interview with a Salt Lake City television station, Singleton outlines the philosophy behind the shift.

“We can’t continue to give everything away for free,” he told KSL-TV. “When you give it away for free, it has no value. When you begin charging for it, it has some value.”

Click here to view the report — and for a longer explanation, toggle to “Full Interview with Dean Singleton.”

Update, Dec. 24: We continue to pursue legal remedies to the company’s anti-union tactics.On Tuesday we authorized our law firm to file an appeal to Washington DC of our case protesting the targeting of union organizers during the July 2008 layoffs. The NLRB’s Oakland region found insufficient evidence last month to issue a complaint. We hope a fresh set of eyes will see the evidence as clearly as we do.

In support of this charge, we have filed evidence and in some cases separate charges involving things that happened our newsrooms before and directly after the union vote. One charge alleges that managers violated federal law during the organizing drive by using surveillance and interrogation to find out which employees were sympathetic to the union. Another documents changes in annual reviews and raises throughout the unit.

Our contention is that the layoffs were part of a pattern in which supporters of the management were rewarded and supporters of the Guild were punished.
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In a Dec. 3 cover story in Metro Santa Cruz, former Santa Cruz Sentinel editor Tom Honig dissects the MediaNews business model, urging the company to build on existing talent. He writes:

There are still outstanding journalists at every newspaper in Northern California, particularly at the San Jose Mercury News and at the Oakland Tribune. An alert and creative MediaNews management team could put down their budget books long enough to establish a training program using the talent already in their organization…

Alas, don’t expect MediaNews to establish such a training program. Instead, their management has publicly discussed the idea of outsourcing some reporting and editing jobs to India. At the least, I expect that upcoming budget moves might include further cuts to the Sentinel’s production staff and moving the tasks of headline writing and copy editing over to a universal copy desk in San Jose. Ugh.

Read the rest.

The San Diego Union Tribune today confirmed rumors that yes, MediaNews is showing interest in purchasing the newspaper.

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