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Buffalo Newspaper Guild members who work at The Buffalo News rolled out a special red-and-green logo on Twitter last week, in keeping with the holiday season, to protest the paper’s dramatically expanded use of freelance writers to cover core news beats.

The Twitter protest, organized by reporters and editors at The News, is intended to cast a spotlight on the importance of quality journalism in our community and who is best equipped to deliver that vital public service.

Guild members at the paper used their popular Twitter feeds to express opposition to The News’ overreliance on freelance writers, particularly in sports coverage.

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11.9.17 – As The Buffalo News expands its weekly newspaper business, the Buffalo Newspaper Guild is expanding its jurisdiction.

The Guild late last month renegotiated its former Hamburg Sun jurisdiction agreement with management at The News to include the Tonawanda Sun weekly paper, published under the names the Twin Cities Sun and the Ken-Ton Sun. The editorial content will be identical — only the flags and teasers of the publications will differ for marketing purposes.

The renegotiated agreement now extends editorial jurisdiction over the Twin Cities Sun and the Ken-Ton Sun, publications whose first editions are planned for Nov. 17.

As established with the initial agreement reached in July regarding The Hamburg Sun, the News agreed to hire part-time and/or full-time employees to work as reporters.

In addition to reporters, this new agreement also states the News will hire a page designer, who will be a Guild member, to perform design and layout work for editorial content at the Hamburg and Tonawanda Sun weeklies.

“The new agreement not only carries over the terms negotiated for the Hamburg Sun, but also expands Guild positions and promotes a more dynamic and professional look for the Sun papers,” said Guild President Sandy Tan. “That benefits both the Guild and The News.”

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9.5.17 – As fall approaches, two major efforts are launching that affect Guild members. One is a new Cash Cow Contest to solicit money-making ideas from non-management News employees. The other is a new [BN] Blitz product being launched by newsroom management, which poses serious concerns for the Guild.

The Cash Cow Contest is a collaborative, employee-empowering effort between the Guild and The News. If you haven’t already received information on this, you will soon. Quite simply, we all recognize that The News cannot cut its way to long-term financial health, and management does not have all the answers to what new, innovative ideas and products can boost the company’s profitability. Without new revenue-generating ideas for products and services, and new ways to grow print and digital subscriptions, the Guild will continue to lose members and face a steeper uphill fight to protect wages and benefits.

We believe many employees have great ideas that could help build the company’s financial strength. The contest is designed to leverage the ideas of hundreds of rank-and-file employees, instead of just a handful from top management, and make sure they come to the attention of the publisher and other top executive team members.

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