Buffalo Newspaper Guild

Sun paper expansion results in more hiring, raises for Sun-based Guild members

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.

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Guild members reel from 17 buyouts, honor colleagues and look ahead

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.

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Guild statement on freedom of the press

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.

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