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Guild files grievance against Inquirer for harassment of old reporters
Newspaper Guild files grievance over Inquirer's "irrational and seemingly punitive reassignments of 12 veteran journalists."
Guild files grievance against Inquirer for harassment of old reporters
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Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America Local 38010 yesterday filed a grievance over The Philadelphia Inquirer's "irrational and seemingly punitive reassignments of 12 veteran journalists."
As City Paper reported yesterday, Interstate General Media, which owns the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com, is accused of reassigning older reporters to undesirable beats and locations in an effort to force them out. They have confirmed these suspicions over the last two weeks by offering a new round of buyouts and hiring three young reporters.
Veteran mafia reporter George Anastasia (who had not been reassigned) has taken the buyout, as have theater critic Howie Shapiro and science writer Faye Flam (both of whom were reassigned). Multiple sources inside and close to the company tell CP that newsroom morale has hit rock bottom.
Interstate is also laying off Philly.com's five-member video team, a questionable move in an industry that is increasingly shifting beyond print to multiple web-based platforms.
Meanwhile, Teamster blue collar company employees have voted to authorize a strike. Interstate management and Inquirer editor Bill Marimow have so far declined to discuss these matters with CP.
This is Guild President Dan Gross' letter to union members:
Dear Guild member,The Newspaper Guild, on Wednesday, filed a grievance with Interstate General Media, over the Philadelphia Inquirer's irrational and seemingly punitive reassignments of 12 veteran journalists.
The Guild asserts the reassignments are improper and asked the employer provide an explanation and justification of the selection of journalists, and the basis and rationale for each individual reassignment.
The fact these highly-skilled, professional journalists were reassigned, many to different regions, days before a buyout program was announced, suggests these reporters and editors were targeted by Inquirer management with the hopes that the shake-ups may inspire these individuals toward applying for the voluntary separation program.
The Guild asks the employer to reconsider the transfers which it made on the hard to believe argument that a focus group decided these changes in coverage were better for the community.
On the topic of the company making stupid decisions its blaming on third-parties, Interstate General Media informed the Guild on Wednesday that the Philly.com video unit is being eliminated on Nov. 2.
Rather than have its' own in-house, professional video unit that has provided quality content to Philly.com on behalf of the Inquirer and Daily News for five years, a consultant advised the company that it would be better to rely on YouTube and other such embeddable videos from elsewhere on the web.
In today's media landscape where the company should strive for originality and to differentiate itself, eliminating original, journalistic content that relates specifically to Philadelphia seems like an unwise and shortsighted decision to us. But we're sure Philly.com visitors won't see the "Gangnam Style" parodies, cute kittens, or whatever silly viral videos are coming, as transparent ploys for pageviews.
As a result of the department's elimination, one full-time video producer, two full-time video editors and two part-time multimedia content producers who comprise the Video Unit will be laid off as of Nov. 2.
Unfortunately, the contract allows the company to layoff these members, and doesn't require the employer to consider quality over a quick way to save some cash.
In solidarity,
Dan Gross, President 
Bill Ross, Executive Director and the Executive Board of the Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America Local 38010
Daniel,
Could you use "older" instead of "old"? To see maturation as a process rather than a fixed state is what leads to age discrimination.— tom-104- See my response below. Thanks. — Daniel Denvir
- Thanks, Tom-104. I think that's spot on. I'll make sure to use that terminology. I appreciate the feedback.— Daniel Denvir
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