![]() ![]() Some unions at other media companies represent certain departments such as editorial, but the staff at Medium saw this as an opportunity to unite across the organization. Naeseth, who has worked at Medium since 2017, said she has “learned so much” about publishing and been able to get to know more colleagues through the unionization effort. “People that work in this industry recognize that this is clearly a good idea: to unionize and to be able to bargain collectively against your employers.” ![]() “What has driven the unionization in media is just the power of the idea itself,” Nolan said. Nolan, who is also on the council for Writers Guild of America, East, which represents HuffPost, Vice, Slate and other news organizations, argued that unions “should be a basic feature of every workplace” - regardless of whether the company is in a state of crisis or not - but added that they have been crucial to the media industry given its instability from the economic cycles and evolving technology. Lonely Planet’s new journey: It’s sold to Charlotte digital conglomerate Red Ventures Workers have sought to address a lack of basic benefits as well concerns about what seemed like constant editorial pivots. Unions have had a long history at newspapers, but the more recent efforts inspired by Gawker’s success launched a new era. Williams told CNN Business last month that one of Medium’s selling points is a built-in audience. The company now competes with other subscription news businesses including newcomer Substack. Medium laid off one-third of its staff in 2017 as it pivoted its business from advertising to subscriptions. This often creates business advantages, but it also upends workers’ lives.” “Tech and media companies alike are constantly changing direction, dissolving and reforming, pivoting and refocusing. “This is the age of newsroom buyouts, startups folding, tech companies shifting more jobs to contractors, and the general implosion of independent media,” they said in the statement. In a “vision statement” shared with CNN Business, workers at Medium cited the importance of equity and support for employees amid a changing media and tech landscape as reasons for organizing. Medium staffers told CNN Business that management acknowledged the union efforts and said it is assessing next steps. Medium did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Our union is an opportunity for the broader workforce to do the same.” Management gets “to stand together, talk about values, talk about our plans,” Naeseth said. Lyra Naeseth, a principal software engineer at Medium, told CNN Business that the union’s goal is “to alleviate the systemic imbalance in our workplace.”ĭigital media battle: Google is threatening to shut down search in Australia “The priority is really to unite the workforce.” “Medium is a workplace like any other where there are imperfections, there are issues, but we’re not running to this initiative with a set of established demands,” said Kelli María Korducki, senior editor at Forge, a Medium publication. While many newsrooms have unionized to address immediate concerns such as mass layoffs, lack of pay equity or glaring diversity issues, Medium staffers said they are not seeking to bargain over specific changes, for now. Last month, Medium acquired Glose, a digital platform for buying, reading and discussing books. In June, Colin Kaepernick joined Medium’s board and announced plans to create stories for the platform about race and civil rights in the United States. In addition to hosting content for professional and amateur writers, Medium has launched several of its own publications including OneZero, GEN and Zora, which cover tech, politics and women of color, respectively. ![]() “One thing that the unions have done across the industry in many, many places is just to put in place a basic safety net for workers.” “I think a lot of people perceive media as this white-collar profession, but the reality of working in a lot of media jobs was really low salaries, bad benefits, very little job stability,” said Hamilton Nolan, a labor reporter for the magazine In These Times who worked at the now-shuttered Gawker and helped spearhead the union efforts there. Many local newspapers and legacy media organizations such as Hearst Magazines, Wired and The New Yorker also have joined the movement, as well as the digital arms of NBC News and MTV News. On Thursday, staffers at the online publishing platform Medium announced their intention to unionize, following in the footsteps of Gawker, HuffPost, Salon, Slate, Vice, BuzzFeed News, Vox Media, Bustle Digital Group, Wirecutter and The Ringer, to name a few. Gawker Media made history five years ago for being the first digital news company to ratify a union contract, kicking off a wave of labor organizing at digital outlets that has yet to recede. ![]()
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