President's Perspective
Journalism's Future Still Up for Grabs

(March 7, 2010) After the two Detroit daily newspapers resumed publication following a 1967-68 strike, workers at the Detroit News, the afternoon paper, returned to a computerized newsroom. Of course, those computers look nothing like what you'd see today, but it was the started of a technological revolution in the newspaper industry that continues.

Combine that with the Great Recession and the inability of the nation's biggest chains to pay even the interest on the loans they took out to finance their growth has put journalism in a precarious state.

An equally disturbing trend, from a union's viewpoint, is that after a paper's unionized workers make concessions to help employers get back on their feet, the employers rarely return the favor.

And what should be disturbing for readers – or at least for far greater numbes of them – is that as the size of a newspaper shrinks, so does its coverage.

The Washington-Baltimore Guild has tried to stay on top of the trends and tread nimbly away from peril when it stalks our own members. But there comes a time when you have to advocate not only for your members – what a union does best – but also for the people the members serve.

To that end, we have convened a Future of Journalism Working Group. Its charge is open-ended. Its tenure may be open-ended as well, since we believe journalism has a future (if it didn't, why bother?). The first members are Lynda DeLoach and Rob Morriss, both of the local's National Labor College unit, and Mariya Strauss of the International Labor
Communications Association unit. (Rob was set to attend what sessions he could of a two-day Federal Trade Commission hearing on this very topic.) We could use more members; after all, this working group got started less than two weeks before this Perspective was posted.

Unlike many Guild locals, WBNG's membership boasts a blend of top-flight journalists and savvy consumers of journalism. That mix can only help the working group in its discussions.

Further, the local's Executive Council has invited to its next meeting Craig Aaron, senior program director for Free Press, a media-reform thinktank. The meeting is Thursday, April 8, at 6:45 p.m., at the local's D.C. office, 1100 15th St. NW, Suite 350.

Even though it's an Executive Council meeting, Craig's remarks will be a special order of business at the top of the meeting, which means that you and any other interested Guild members can attend without having to slog through Guild business that may not mean much to some of you.

And maybe after the presentation (Craig will outline Free Press programs, campaigns, and advocacy work, including its savethenews.org.initiative) is over, you and Craig can saunter over to the Post Pub and knock back a few while continuing the dialogue.

Democracy depends on journalism. And journalism depends on us.