America’s Largest Media Union Launches Historic Advocacy Campaign to Save Industry
The top media union in North America is launching a historic advocacy campaign in a desperate effort to gin up political support to help stave off the economic crunch on the news industry.
The effort being undertaken by the 30,000-plus member NewsGuild-CWA will involve a six-figure digital ad campaign, direct lobbying on Capitol Hill, and a new website where—among other things—laid off and furloughed journalists will chronicle the industry’s plights. The goal is both immediate and long term: to get Congress to OK giving direct grants to workers at news outlets; to expand access to the small business lending program so that newspaper chains can tap those funds; to persuade the federal government to start using its existing ad budgets to bolster struggling media entities; and, ultimately, to put an industry that has shed tens of thousands of jobs in recent months on stabler ground.
“The window isn’t closed,” said Jon Schleuss, the president of NewsGuild-CWA. “But it has gotten worse [in just the last month] and it is going to get worse every day.”
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