[Title quickly changed for clarity and brevity]
I'm a Philadelphia newspaper reporter, and in the interest of transparency, I will break with usual practice and tell you exactly who I am: Will Bunch, senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and author of the blog Attytood.
As most readers in Philadelphia and maybe a few of you from elsewhere may know, there is a very real chance that my union, the Newspaper Guild -- representing reporters, photographers, advertising and other staffers at Philly's two newspapers, the Daily News and the Inquirer -- may go on strike as early as 25 hours from now.
This diary is a plea for support from the Daily Kos community -- even if you are one of the many progressives who've grown disenchanted -- or even downright hateful -- toward the mainstream media.
Look, believe me, I understand why some people here and elsewhere are so down on the newspaper world. In this post that I wrote on Attytood last year, I called for radical changes at newspapers like the DN and the Inquirer, noting that we were to blame for much of our problems -- boring, talking down to readers, and promoting the kind of phony brand of "objectivity" and "balance" that was so easily manipulated by Bush and Co. to co-opt the media for an immoral war in Iraq.
At the same time, I also believe very much in the cause of journalism and a free press. For all our failings, real investigative journalism continues to be a force for good, from the Pulitzer-winning articles about CIA "black prisons" and warrantless wiretaps to local reporting like a recent series by the Inquirer exposing deadly neglect in the child welfare system.
I think many people at Daily Kos feel the same way. In fact, I was in part encouraged to write this by the positive response several weeks ago to a diary urging Los Angeles Times readers to cancel subscriptions if the Tribune Co. continues the draconian job cuts there. Today, the future for journalism in Philadelphia appears to be even bleaker.
The Daily News and the Inquirer have been sold not once but twice in 2006, the result of a downward spiral that our original owners -- the cost-cutting, short-sighted and now defunct Knight-Ridder Corp. -- began. The Daily News now has fewer than half as many reporters as two decades ago -- that we publish at all is a tribute to both hard work and a unique bond that my newspaper, a gritty and sometimes in-your-face tabloid, has formed with the ever-shrinking urban neighborhoods of Philly (one aspect of this is that the DN has the highest African-American readership of any major market mass newspaper, bar none.) I won't get much into politics, other than quickly noting that the DN was the very first paper in America to endorse Kerry over Bush in 2004, and the Inquirer was the most enthusiastic, with a series of 21 anti-Bush editorials.
And when the DN and the Inquirer were bought this spring by a group of local millionaires and their newly formed company, Philadelphia Media Holdings (PMH), we thought our story had a happy ending, at least for a few years anyway. Now that might seem odd to those of us with progressive views on political matters, since the new CEO and now publisher of the papers, Brian Tierney, is a longtime GOP activist back to the Reagan years, and our board chairman, real estate mogul Bruce Toll, has also been a GOP backer, especially of soon-to-be-ex-Sen. Rick Santorum. But the new owners earned a fair chance from us because of two promises: Not to meddle at all on the editorial side, and to halt the job bleeding that has already eroded local news coverage in Philly.
Surprisingly, they've upheld their first pledge, but not the second. Unfortunately, the new owners had to go into debt up to their eyeballs to buy the papers, and they also finalized the purchase before they finalized a deal with the newspaper's unions, with contracts originally set to expire in August (but ultimately extended to tomorrow). Blaming an unexpectedly accelerating drop in ad revenue, they changed their story and said they will now begin laying off journalists -- as many as 150 to 190, perhaps reducing the newsroom staff of the Inquirer by nearly a third, without massive givebacks.
Their initial proposals have been to end their contributions to our pension plan, freezing it where it is now; not paying us for our initial sick days, and eliminating the job security of the seniority system for workers approaching middle age (and college expenses, the place I personally will soon be at).
I'm realistic, and I don't expect everyone to support us, if we do indeed strike. In addition to folks on both the left and the right who are down on newspapers for political reasons, I am sure some will also say that newspaper journalists are already paid too much, or that when it comes to losing pension benefits, we should simply shut up and join the millions of others who've had the same thing happen to them in the last 20 years.
I would disagree. Our pay is OK, but it's not as high as most of the future lawyers or investment bankers we sat next to in college; we chose a profession that is fun but also a valuable service to communities, partly because we were promised a secure career with a safety net -- the safety net that Brian Tierney and his millionaire partners want to take away from us. As for losing pension money, do two wrongs make a right? Just because other workers lost that battle, that doesn't mean we should give up now, not when our new bosses haven't even yet tried the creative kind of solutions that could actually grow revenue, an approach that will require teamwork, and not bitter employees spending most of the day updating their resumes -- which is what will happen in Philly if this goes through.
Let me put this is the most basic terms that all Daily Kos readers can relate to. Would you support of cabal of millionaire Republicans over American employees simply trying to raise a family and look forward to a normal retirement?
I didn't think so.
Good, so now that you're on board with us, what can you do to help?
Just a few simple things:
- Today, the Newspaper Guild announced the site where we will continue to report on the important news of Philadelphia, and where the columnists and bloggers -- like myself -- of the Daily News and Inquirer will continue to write. It's called PhilaPapers.com, and if you visit the site and read us every day, it will help build support and also help us attract advertisers as that becomes necessary.
- Conversely, do nothing of any kind to support the management of the Daily News and Inquirer as they try to continue to publish during a strike. That means avoiding their Web site, Philly.com, and -- if you live in Philly -- not purchasing a newspaper or cancelling a subscription for the duration.
- Bloggers -- and I know there are many in the DK community -- can particularly help, by writing on our behalf but also by linking to PhilaPapers.com and adding us to your blogroll, and also by pledging NOT to link to anything on Philly.com during the strike duration. If you wish to help in this way, you may also contact me at bunch.will@gmail.com to better coordinate this.
It may not come to a strike, and for the sake of everyone involved -- not just my friends and co-workers, but also the citizens of Philadelphia, I hope it doesn't. But if there is a strike, I believe it will be the first big battle of the coming media wars of the 21st Century, and it's critically important for a free press that the good guys win. I feel confident that the Daily Kos community will step up to the plate.