Working Journalists aims to improve conditions for Chicago-area freelancers

by Rachel Sanders Rob Dicker felt totally secure in his position as staff photographer with Pioneer Press. He had skills, seniority and a great relationship with his manager. So it came as a total shock when he was called into a meeting in May 2013 by his newspaper’s corporate owner, Sun-Times Media. The company laid off its entire […]

Posted on August 14, 2014 at 10:38 pm by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , ,

Sara Steffens on the challenges and benefits of freelance organizing

by Rachel Sanders The world, it seems, is going freelance. With traditional media in a state of massive restructuring, there are more independent media workers than ever before. Freelance unions (such as our own CMG Freelance) are growing and expanding to provide advocacy and support to the growing freelance ranks. Sara Steffens has been on the front line of […]

Posted on June 5, 2014 at 10:21 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , ,

Asking Arianna for change

Open letters to publications’ management are a last-ditch tactic to right wrongs and spur change—but as we’ve seen recently, they can be effective. Now, adding his voice to many others asking the Huffington Post to reconsider its approach to compensating writers, comes Bernie Lunzer, president of the Newspaper Guild-CWA, with an open letter to Arianna […]

Posted on March 30, 2011 at 9:41 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Newspaper Guild-CWA advocating on behalf of unpaid HuffPo writers

Poynter.org has posted a press release from the Newspaper Guild-CWA in which it asks writers who contribute work to the Huffington Post for free to cease doing so until the company agrees to start compensating them. The Guild’s request follows the Huffington’s Post‘s recent $350 million buyout by AOL, and it’s not the first call […]

Posted on March 17, 2011 at 6:29 pm by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , ,