NewsGuild
NewsGuild, North American labor union representing journalists and other media professionals. While some early attempts to organize newspaper employees took place in the 19th century in the United States, Britain, and Europe, most either failed to garner much support or did not represent journalists and their professional interests. As such, the American Newspaper Guild, renamed The Newspaper Guild in 1970 and the NewsGuild in 2015, was founded in 1933 by Heywood Broun of the New York World-Telegram, Joseph Cookman from the New York Post, and Allen Raymond from the New York Herald Tribune. The Newspaper Guild sought to ensure job security for newspaper employees during the economic crisis of the Great Depression and the popularization of new media outlets such as radio and film as transmitters of news.
The NewsGuild has worked to define and assert the status of journalism as a recognized profession and to promote professional standards in the publishing industry, including honesty and objectivity. Since its inception, the NewsGuild has had a significant impact upon media institutions, newspaper publishing, and journalism. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it includes members from throughout the United States and Canada and is a sector of the Communications Workers of America.
Historically, since the early decades of the 19th century, journalists, editors, and newspaper workers throughout Britain, Germany, and the United States had sought to organize. One example of an effort to do so was the formation of the British Newspaper Society, established in 1836, which largely served as a club for like-minded individuals rather than acting as a bargaining union empowered to negotiate. By the late 19th century, changes in the field of journalism led to increasing pressure by writers and editors for recognition of their professional status as well as for higher wages and improved working conditions. Initially, the American Newspaper Publishers Association was organized in the United States in 1887 in response to these demands. However, given that its membership did not include authors, journalists, or editors, the organization’s ability to represent or effectively address the interests of many newspaper employees was limited.
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The concerns of journalists in the United States were largely ignored by publishers and owners until the economic crisis of the Great Depression and the merger between the New York World and the New York Telegram in 1931, which resulted in widespread unemployment among newspaper employees. At the same time, the advent of new media outlets such as radio and film, as well as the development of new technologies that transformed the newspaper business, was of concern to journalists and editors. While publishers and industry owners were not interested in recognizing claims of professionalism by journalists, the steady demand for daily newspapers nonetheless required an increasingly qualified organization of established and reliable writers, researchers, and editors.
In response to rising concerns that the U.S. government was going to side with newspaper owners in terms of setting wages and hourly regulations, on December 15, 1933, representatives of journalists and editors, including Broun, Cookman, and Raymond, met at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to form the American Newspaper Guild. It was the first successful attempt to organize the journalists and editorial staff working for American newspapers into a national union. It initially sought to ensure job security, bargain for higher wages and benefits, improve working conditions, and advocate for the protection of intellectual property and freedom of speech. Over the course of the ensuing years, it also fought for the adoption and promotion of professional ethical standards in journalism, including principles related to accuracy, fairness, and editorial independence, which became increasingly associated with the profession.
The first breakthrough for the organization occurred in 1934 when the publishers of the Philadelphia Record agreed to its wage demands and subsequently required new employees to become members. Despite this and a number of other contracts, however, resistance to the American Newspaper Guild and its demands remained across the country, leading in many cases to employees who were Guild members being dismissed from their newspaper. Regardless, in 1936, the American Newspaper Guild became affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, and by 1937, it became associated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (two labor federations that later merged in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO) and expanded to include other aspects of newspaper production including editors, artists, correspondents, photographers, and distribution staff.
During its formative years throughout the 1930–50s, the American Newspaper Guild was often charged with being an agent of communism and as being under the control of communists. Such critiques led to the organization being investigated by the likes of J. Edgar Hoover, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Regardless of these controversies, throughout the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, local chapters of the American Newspaper Guild became increasingly organized, and the national organization reached agreements with many of the country’s major newspapers, thereby establishing its place within the industry.
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By the late 1950s and ’60s, the prevalence of television as a purveyor of news and information had begun to change the nature of the media environment and started to alter the publishing industry, resulting in a reduction in journalism jobs. As a result, between the early 1960s and the 1980s, this uncertain situation repeatedly led to confrontations between media unions and publishers. By the 1990s, increasing concentrations of media ownership and corporate mergers along with the rising influence of digital technology and the online environment became the primary influences upon the publishing industry, once again exacerbating tensions within the journalism profession.
By 1995, the Guild had merged with the Communications Workers of America, a union that represented employees in telecommunications, broadcasting, journalism, and publishing industries. Regardless, from 2000 onward, the rise of online and social media reporting, citizen journalism, and user-generated content amid the growth in individual and digital surveillance technologies again gave rise to questions regarding the professional nature of journalism, industry standards, and job security. In addition, online reporting and commentary led employers within the publishing industry to increasingly choose contract and freelance authors over permanent, unionized journalists.
Beginning in the late 2010s, the NewsGuild experienced a major resurgence as journalists and digital-media workers at online publications, podcasts, nonprofit news organizations, and multimedia companies increasingly unionized in response to layoffs, workplace instability, concerns about editorial independence, and the growing consolidation of media ownership. The NewsGuild’s organizing efforts expanded beyond traditional newspapers to include workers at digital-only media outlets and other forms of online journalism. In the 2020s, it increasingly addressed issues related to artificial intelligence and AI-generated content, freelance labor, newsroom diversity, and the economic instability of online media organizations.
Over its history, the NewsGuild has had a significant impact upon media institutions, newspaper publishing, and journalism in the United States and Canada. Its involvement is considered to have contributed to the professional recognition of journalism, the definition of industry standards, and the growth of the internal editorial process and structural hierarchy of newspapers. Although many of the specific concerns that led to its formation in 1933 have been addressed, new technology, challenges to job security, and debates regarding freedom of information, the presentation of ideas, and the role of the media mean that its role and focus remain highly relevant.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.