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Newspaper Guild Greater Philadelphia To Fight Layoffs of Philadelphia Journalists
The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, Local 38010 of the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC, plans to fight layoffs of 19 Philadelphia journalists, after 21 take buyouts offered by Philadelphia Media Network, (PMN) owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com.
Photojournalist Sarah Glover decided to take the buyout rather than being laid off. Glover is president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. In a note to Facebook friends she stated her concern that “by the end of the staff reduction process at PMN this week that the newsrooms will take another step back to looking like 1962 rather than more like what a newsroom should look like in 2012.”
Glover further states:
” Ironically, in 1962, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Acel Moore was the first black hired by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Progress over the decades was all but washed away with the layoffs of 2007, when 30 blacks and Asians were laid off disproportionately out of a total of the 71 laid off. Who would of thought a simple catch phrase by the former Knight Ridder company would still resonate and hold true today… “Diversity. No Excuses.” Prior to this week’s staff reductions, there were already too few ethnic minorities at the papers and website. It’s embarrassing, particularly in a city that is majority minority. U.S. census data says 62 percent of the city’s 1.5 million residents are ethnic minorities. All news organizations should have staffs that represent the communities they serve. It is quite frankly a no-brainer, and a good business decision. I’m glad to see representation among women to be good, but ethnic minority representation is abysmal.”
“I was the sole woman of color on the photo staffs of the Inquirer/Daily News. I’m the first black woman to work as a photographer at the Daily News (2008 to present), and the second black woman to have been hired by the Inquirer (1999-2008). In the Philadelphia market, I believe I’m the only black woman working as a full-time photojournalist at a news organization.”
Guild President Dan Gross and Executive Director Bill Ross say they will fight the layoffs.
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