To spot the NewsGuild’s comparative impotence successful context, work writer Scott Sherman’s history of the large New York paper onslaught of 1962-1963, published successful Vanity Fair a decennary ago. Back then, earlier machine typesetting took root, paper publishing was a overmuch much labor-intensive business, requiring armies of pressmen to nutrient a daily. Sherman reports that New York’s 7 dailies employed 17,000 workers — “pressmen, photoengravers, insubstantial handlers, reporters, elevator operators, bureau boys.” Producing a paper without skilled national workers successful a union-friendly municipality was astir impossible.
But advances successful machine typesetting and different technologies, which, successful part, instigated the large New York paper strike, person altered the union-management dynamic, favoring management. Let’s accidental today’s unionized Times newsroom decided to strike. Managers could inactive nutrient thing that would walk for a paper with stories written by managers and by filling holes successful sum with ligament work and syndicated copy. If the national pressmen were to locomotion retired successful enactment of the newsroom onslaught and nary newspapers were printed, readers could inactive work their Times over the web. And they astir apt would.
Sherman’s Vanity Fair portion illustrates conscionable however indispensable the paper was to the city’s civilization successful 1963. He reports that 350 newsdealers were enactment retired of business, but they were lone the astir disposable victims. Hotels and restaurants suffered due to the fact that determination was nary venue for their advertisements, causing 5,000 hospitality workers to suffer their jobs. Without obituaries to usher mourners, ceremonial attendance and florists suffered. Social payment organizations recovered it intolerable to spot orphans for adoption without people ads. Department stores, the dailies’ biggest advertisers by far, had nary comparable spot to denote sales, and took a large hit.
Newspapers, adjacent the New York Times, have mislaid the economical and taste centrality they held 60 years ago, acknowledgment to the emergence of tv and web news. The advertizing manufacture has truthful bypassed newspapers that since 2012, Google has collected much advertisement gross than the full people publishing business. If the NewsGuild were to spell connected onslaught against the Times today, the federation and the system would instrumentality notice, but past some would shrug.
Loyal Times readers would, of course, riot if editors filled the struck-paper with management-written transcript and worldly ripped from the wire. Just ideate a time without a Maggie Haberman scoop! No much Dwight Garner publication reviews! No Science Times oregon publication review! Potentially nary Wordle?! The caput quivers.
But however sustained would the fury be? Even the astir ardent New York Times scholar volition admit that newspapers are fungible. Denied entree to a staff-written New York Times, adjacent the astir Times-centric scholar could past a Times strike by turning to the web for timely news, an alternate that didn’t beryllium successful 1963. A regular compilation of articles from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Time, the Atlantic, the New Yorker and POLITICO would easy bash the trick. The NewsGuild has astir nary leverage successful its conflict against the paper, and it knows it. A national with existent leverage would marque plans for a existent onslaught alternatively of a mock one. (Nota bene: One of the NewsGuild’s locals represents journalists from POLITICO.)
This isn’t to accidental the national has nary recourse oregon not adjacent origin for its wage demands. After all, the institution is posting steadfast profits, paying its top executives well, and precocious purchased the Athletic for $550 million. The national and its members could bash a amended occupation of enlisting subscribers successful their cause. For respective years now, subscribers person provided the paper with most of its revenue, which means they person replaced advertisers arsenic the process that wags the Times dog. Stronger appeals to subscribers — beyond the few clever tweets the NewsGuild has produced — astir their origin mightiness help. Or would it backfire? The past happening the national should privation is simply a subscriber boycott of the Times that would slay the fattened calf.
Fighting the bosses has ne'er been easy. But play-acting astatine strikes has ne'er won a new, juicy contract.
Home transportation of the New York Times is going up $2.75 a period starting successful precocious February, according to an email I received from steadfast A.G. Sulzberger past month. I deliberation I’ll signifier a walkout. Send cancellations to [email protected]. No caller email alert subscriptions are being honored astatine this time. My Twitter provender ever reads Farhad Manjoo’s tweets. My Mastodon relationship is looking for Farhad’s Mastodon address. My RSS provender longs for microfilm entree to the New York Herald Tribune.
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