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The New York Times Essay

Decent Essays

The New York Times is one of America’s largest newspaper publishers, today selling over 900,000 printed copies daily. Their website, NYTimes.com, is the most visited online newspaper website, receiving 32.4 million unique visitors in December 2010. (The NY Times Company, 2010, pp. 2 3) The New York Times employs 3094 workers, 1016 of them members of The Newspaper Guild of New York. (p. 8) In order to remain as America’s premier newspaper, The New York Times not only deals with the changing media market but union negotiations for approximately 40% of its staff. (p. 13) The Times relies on the creativity and high level of professionalism that many of its Guild members offer but are always looking to increase profit by cutting costs so …show more content…

In 1997, after 17 months of negotiations, The Guild CWA and The Times finally settled over wages and established a contract extension through 2003. In 2004 The Guild CWA was able to bargain for 5 annual 3% wage increases along with no retrogressions. The Guild CWA also fought to make all Guild members eligible in The Times Bonus Program that was only available to non-Guild employees. (Five Year, May 2004, para. 1) A 3 year continuation on the current contract for Times Digital employees was achieved in 2008. “Given the current economic environment and the challenges the media industry is facing we are pleased the Times has made a commitment to invest in the future of the website” stated Guild President Bill O’Meara after the agreement was reached. (New Three-Year, Dec 2008, para. 2) Along with pension plans and health insurance coverage thats comparable The Times management benefits, the Guild CWA has made substantial improvements for their members quality of employment. These protective and prosperous collective bargaining agreements The Guild has attained for its members at The Times have set the standard in the newspaper industry. As consumers continue to shift in how they retrieve news from conventional print to digital medias, The Times continues to look at different ways to maintain revenue. The ability of consumers to access free news content online has cut into

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