Guild rebounds from buyout losses with new Editorial hires, growth of Suns
Saturday, January 26, 2019 by Colin Dabkowski
After one of the most difficult summers in recent memory, the Guild and The News are in rebuilding mode.
And while we are still processing the repercussions of our colleagues’ departures, there are reasons to hope for better days ahead. Foremost among them is the addition of several new faces to the newsroom, which has welcomed five new full-time staff reporters and editors — largely in the decimated sports department —
and four part-time print and digital reporters.
Our new members have brought a welcome dose of energy into a battered workplace. Their work will likely be instrumental in a new initiative spearheaded by management and supported by the Guild to reinvent The News as a collection of digital businesses and to build subscription and other sources of revenue into a sustainable future. (More on this in a future issue of the Frontier Reporter.)
In the meantime, the Guild has worked hard to guard the provisions of our contract, to extend our jurisdiction to newly launched products like the Kenmore and Tonawanda Sun newspapers and to help our members through a challenging time in the industry.
This issue of the Frontier Reporter — in stark contrast to the last one — takes a more optimistic tone as we attempt to work together with management to put The News back on solid ground.
— Colin Dabkowski, vice president of mobilization and communication
Read the full version of the Frontier Reporter here:
Friday, September 21, 2018 by Colin Dabkowski
9.19.18 — The Buffalo News is moving forward with its expansion of weekly Sun papers, committing to launching three additional weeklies in addition to the Hamburg Sun and Kenmore-Tonawanda Sun papers that operate now.
And that is good news for the Guild.
Next month, The News will launch the Orchard Park Sun, the Lancaster-Depew Sun and the West Seneca Sun papers. That expansion will involve the hiring of two new reporters and an additional full-time page designer, all of whom are covered under a new agreement reached between the Guild and management.
Friday, September 7, 2018 by Colin Dabkowski
There is no way of spinning this positively.
Though we have known for at least a decade that tougher times were on the horizon — and that The Buffalo News has been comparatively lucky in this decimated industry — that foreknowledge has not blunted the pain and disappointment of this moment.
By mid-July, when the last of those targeted for a buyout walked out of the newsroom, 17 Guild members had left The News. The skills they took with them — decades of experience editing, headline-writing, reporting, designing and using their collective talent to tell the stories that mattered — leaves our institution greatly diminished.
The sudden departure of so many of valued colleagues leaves those of us who remain feeling numb. And it leaves our loyal readers wondering about its inevitable effect on the quality of the newspaper we put out every day and the website we update every minute.
Thursday, August 16, 2018 by Colin Dabkowski
“No matter how imperfect things are, if you’ve got a free press everything is correctible, and without it everything is concealable.” — Tom Stoppard, spoken by the character Jacob Milne in the play “Night and Day,” 1937
These words greet Buffalo News journalists every day as we walk into the newsroom. They serve as a constant reminder of our duty to hold the powerful accountable and to expose injustice.
Whatever your political beliefs, the existence of a free press has been widely embraced as an essential pillar of this democracy. It is enshrined in the Constitution, the First Amendment of which is etched in glass in our lobby.
But make no mistake: The press is now under attack.
More News
- Targeted buyouts in Editorial follow first-quarter losses from The News
- Vince “Jim” Ippolito
- Guild members vote to ratify tentative agreement
- Guild reaches tentative agreement on 3-year contract with no concessions or cuts to wages, benefits
- Members protest The News’ overreliance on freelance writers
- Guild members march in Labor Day Parade
- Guild gains editorial jurisdiction at The Hamburg Sun
- Two-year Guild contract secured after 10 months of negotiations
- Guild to host NewsGuild Multi-District Council meeting in June
- Guild members approve new contract
- Guild schedules contract vote for April 20
- Company updates employees on State of the News
- Tan succeeds Davis as Guild president
- Guild sets Annual Holiday Party for Dec. 14
- Guild members reel from 17 buyouts, honor colleagues and look ahead
- Join us for the Labor Day Parade
- Guild executive committee minutes: Tuesday, April 24, 2018
- Buyouts result in painful newsroom losses
