CEO of the Anchorage Daily News Ryan Binkley was admonished by the chair of the Seattle Times workers union to swiftly finalize a “first contract” with the new union forming at Alaska’s largest news organization. The new Anchorage union is taking a vote on whether to become a unit of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild. The union organizers say 80% of the newsroom staff wants to join a union.
“Media organization unions have quickly become an industry standard in recent years,” said Anna Patrick, the chair of the union at the Seattle Times. “As the largest newspaper in Alaska, we know that journalists at the Anchorage Daily News play a critical role in informing readers and uncovering injustices,” Patrick said in a grammatically challenging sentence. “It’s imperative that your journalists are able to afford to live in the city they cover and we support their fight for establishing pay equity, cost-of-living raises and an actual severance package.”
Patrick seemed oblivious to the realities of the news industry, believing that a contract with workers will be a financial help to the owners, the Binkley Company, which bought the newspaper out of bankruptcy for a mere $1 million, after former owner Alice Rogoff had purchased it for about $34 million from McClatchy, and then proceeded to run it into an insolvent position.
“If the Anchorage Daily News wants to remain a high-standard newspaper in an industry ravaged by poor financial decisions and bad management, its wisest choice is to work quicky with bargaining leaders to establish a fair and equitable contract,” she wrote.
Sources say that as the Anchorage Daily News was preparing to lay off staff, the reporters quickly announced they are unionizing. Such an announcement prevented, by regulation, the newspaper from making the layoffs, as labor actions are protected by the National Labor Relations Board.
Last December, 750 members of the Washington Post Guild staged a one-day strike to let the public know that they didn’t think that the newspaper, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon, was bargaining with them in good faith. As part of the protest, several of the disgruntled reporters withheld their bylines from their stories over a couple of days, something that was probably not noticed by readers.
Meanwhile, Bezos operates The Washington Post at a loss of what was about $100 million last year alone. Whether the Binkley Company is willing to continue running the Anchorage Daily News at a loss remains the question. The newspaper has shrunk daily print to just two days a week as it slowly makes the transition to an online-only publication, one that is supported by nonprofit foundations that pay for the reporters who, according to sources, are adamant that they must be allowed to work from home.
Trying to decide now whether to renew online subscription. Rather than fair Alaska coverage they seem to take their lead from the leftist Washington Post.
I am not sure owning the ADN has done the Binkley family any good. Now I associate hard left with their family. Better to close it and demolish the facility. The Binkley’s are about to get caught into a trap they may not be able to get out of.
Take a look at ADN’s front page. Climate change, green energy, pro RCV….
Is there anyone at that paper that is over 25?
Tone deaf, much? The ADN would be cold and rotting in the grave had it not been rescued by Binkley. Not that I am a fan of the owner or the paper. How about the Seattle Times lecturing on solid journalism versus the leftist advocacy that we’re constantly choking on. Hey, ADN and Seattle Times: don’t p*ss down our backs and tell us it’s raining.
Cannonball!!
I wonder if there might be a remote chance that we could get Elon Musk to buy the Anchorage Daily Snooze?
I confess to paying for the online subscription but it’s the only statewide rag there is. The opinion page is 90% liberal trash and is so infuriating that I skip over most of it. It pains me to pay for such garbage.
No matter how much they unionize, that won’t change the financials of the business, necessary to improve working conditions and benefits.
Unionization won’t save the paper, or the jobs.
It just gets you a nicer severance package.
Well a union ought to put that rag out of business for good.
I hope they go broke.
I hope the Bolsheviks strike, drive the ADN into bankruptcy, and then flee back to Portland, Seattle, or wherever they came from.
Alaska needs higher quality, thoughtful journalism, which has never flowed from the ADN. It’s merely a rag for leftist advocacy and its time has come and gone.
Good riddance.
Put a fork in it; it’s done…..
Behold the Drama Triangle!
‘https://www.practiceplan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/The-Drama-Triangle.pdf
Binkley Riverboat gamblers SAVED ADN from Alice in Wonderland VICTIM, and now must face PERSECUTOR employees, who want blood from a turnip.
NOBODY WINS IN THE DRAMA TRIANGLE.
Cash out for what you can get and move on down the river. Admit ADN is done and let the vultures pick the carcass.
Unionizing will not help the Anchorage Daily News from going the way of other news papers and the buggy whip! I actually predict that unionizing will just cause the paper to fold sooner. Remember, reporters are not business people! For comparison ADN boasts a weekly readership of 130,000. At 20,000 per day the readership is more at Must Read Alaska, which has much less overhead. It’s not a good bet to go with the ADN surviving much longer, unless the Binkleys want to support it financially indefinitely.
And the lopsided left supporting news ADN prints.
I’m crushingly disappointed in the Brinkleys. I used to think they
We’re a great family. Not so much anymore. Their commie rag is the enemy of Alaskans .
Informing readers and uncovering injustices. Of which they do neither they Mis inform and slander. Disgraceful rag.
Unionizing the ADN crew would be like unionizing the crew of the Titanic. Those who can had better get in the life rafts immediately!!!!
The Binkleys aren’t union people. So, no. And with publications only two per week, the Daily News might not even be around past the end of 2024. Even Democrats, who are the only true supporters of the state’s two largest dailies, understand economics well enough to know that bird cage poop absorbent is getting pricey these days.
As an employee of ADN for over 30 years, it’s saddening that a small group of whiney children seem to think that they are better and deserve more than the rest of their coworkers. The newsroom, in my opinion, has been “fat” for many years and does too much copying and pasting from other outlets which can be done by anyone with a 3rd grade education. Unions had their place back in the day when there was widespread abuse of employees, but with all of the protection laws on the books, I think they are just a drain on society financially to just fill the wallets of the “leaders”. Go ahead and join your union, cause financial hardship for the owners, get your special severance package, get severed, and then try to find another job in the Anchorage area. I’m sure there are plenty of journalism jobs for you to choose from. In the meantime continue to live with your parents and sponge off of them too. Just my two cents.
When will this Democrat propaganda rag go out of business? They’ve been absolutely horrible for Alaska for the past decade. May they fail soon!
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