Timesland journalists gain raises and pay scale with third Lee Enterprises contract
ROANOKE, Va. — Journalists at The Roanoke Times have voted 21-0 to ratify a contract with newspaper owner Lee Enterprises that includes an employee pay scale, pay raises for everyone for the next two years, and an increase in mileage reimbursement.
This is the first pay scale in the newsroom since the union formed 5 years ago. The Timesland News Guild represents more than 21 employees at The Roanoke Times.
“Today is a watershed moment in my 28 years with The Roanoke Times,” said Michael Belcher, a copy editor and chief steward. “For the first time, we have a pay scale to provide fairer and more equitable salaries to reward people – not just for their hard work but also their years of experience and service to the community. This pay scale will help recruit new journalists and encourage our best and brightest employees to stay in Southwest Virginia.”
Through the tireless advocacy and commitment of Timesland journalists, we achieved, among other benefits:
A pay raise of 3% for most union members, a victory the union hopes to build on in future years to ensure dedicated people can afford to stay in journalism.
Ten employees — half of the newsroom — will get an immediate raise in excess of 3% (from 5% to 15%) to begin taking long-overdue steps to correct salary inequities.
Union members will receive improved mileage reimbursement for the traveling they do in their personal vehicles for work. All employees will receive another 3% pay increase next year or move up the pay scale based on years of service (whichever amount is greater).
“My colleagues at The Roanoke Times have put in long hours to fight for others in the newsroom and for future generations of journalists.” Belcher said. “By standing together, we’ve made gains that would not have been possible otherwise.”
Members of the Timesland bargaining committee spent four months planning strategies and negotiating with the company.”
Although the guild did not achieve everything it sought in this contract, Belcher said, “We will continue to work toward improving the payscale and mileage reimbursement and adding Juneteenth as a recognized holiday.
“As Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend in 1790, ‘The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches. We must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get.’ ”
About The Roanoke Times: Serving Roanoke and Southwest Virginia since its founding in 1886 The Roanoke Times publishes a daily print and online newspaper. The largest professional news outlet in Southwest Virginia, The Roanoke Times employs 21 journalists.
About The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America: The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 24,000 journalists and other media workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, including The Charlottesville Daily Progress, The Virginian-Pilot, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
Timesland Guild protests for a fair wage scale at The Roanoke Times
ROANOKE, VA — The unionized employees of The Roanoke Times newsroom staged a lunch-hour protest for fair wage scale Wednesday.
About 40 protesters carried signs and chanted at Henrietta Lacks-Freedom parks in downtown Roanoke across from The Roanoke Times building.
“We are fighting for a fair pay scale that acknowledges years of experience,” said Michael Belcher, chief steward for Timesland News Guild.
“We have successfully fought to raise the starting salary at The Roanoke Times, but our more experienced workers are suffering.
“We have some workers with 10, 20 and even 30 years of experience who are making about what new employees make.
“Add in that some of the biggest pay disparities fall on women, people of color and workers 50 years old and older and a disturbing trend seems to be forming.
“The company’s stance of 2% raises amid years of high inflation doesn’t address this injustice,” Belcher said.
Protestors also said they were fighting for fair mileage reimbursement. The Roanoke Times parent company, Lee Enterprises pays only 34 cents/ mile vs the IRS recommended rate of 67 cents/mile.
The local unit resumes negotiations with Lee Enterprises April 15 and 16. The Timesland News Guild is part the Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035 of the News Guild-Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC.
Members of the newsroom were joined by members of the public, demonstrators from Western Virginia Labor Federation, and local politicians Democrat Liam J. Watson of Blacksburg Town Council, and Democratic candidate Phazon Nash, who is running for Roanoke City Council.
Timesland expresses solidarity with Lee unions affected by print reductions
We at the Timesland News Guild want to express solidarity with the newsrooms across the country affected by Lee Enterprises’ poorly managed print reductions.
Iowa-based Lee Enterprises recently cut multiple newspapers in the United States to three printed editions a week.
Lee prints The Roanoke Times daily, as always, but elsewhere in Virginia, now delivers printed newspapers only three days weekly to subscribers of The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Martinsville Bulletin, Danville Register & Bee, Bristol Herald Courier, News Virginian in Waynesboro and Culpeper Star-Exponent.
The Roanoke Times is one of about a dozen Lee-owned papers in Virginia, and one of only three unionized Lee newsrooms in the state.
As of this week, The Roanoke Times has taken over print edition production responsibilities for the Martinsville Bulletin and Danville Register & Bee.
We feel a responsibility to speak up for the Lee-owned newsrooms in Virginia that don’t have our platform, and to show support for all the Lee-owned newsrooms that have been affected across the country, particularly our unionized colleagues at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Casper-Star Tribune in Wyoming, Southern Illinoisan in Illinois and Daily News in Washington and Oregon.
You are not alone. We stand with you.
For years, Lee has clearly signaled the shift away from print and toward digital. Lee claims this most recent step will allow reporters to spend less time working to make print deadlines and more time on hard hitting, quality, in-depth local news stories.
We love that idea, but Lee is not actually investing to make it happen.
Instead of stepping up support for local papers, Lee has continued to cut jobs this year, stretching skeleton crew newsrooms even thinner. The company imposed pay cuts on nonunion journalists via 3.8% salary reductions or unpaid furloughs.
Instead of shining the spotlight on locally-produced content online, Lee is allowing fewer local stories to show up on the home pages of our websites.
Lee has disinvested in the teams that produce local news, and is using their continued struggles to justify further cuts, rather than providing the support needed to thrive.
To our readers frustrated with unusable mobile websites, poor customer service and unreliable deliveries: We hear you. We’re frustrated, too. We want to bring you news worth paying for — and we know our colleagues in other newsrooms do, too.
Meet Timesland’s newest Secular Society Fellow
Timesland member Heather Rousseau is an incredible journalist who brings passion and empathy to sharing the stories of others.
We can't wait for everyone to see the amazing work she'll be doing this year. You can learn more about her exciting new fellowship project here.
This also would be a great time to catch up on the important work that Timesland Vice Chair Alison Graham did as our first Secular Society Fellow. Alison dug into the complex challenges facing our Social Services system. You can find her entire series here.
Timesland contract helps keep reporter in local journalism
This week, our newsroom saw a powerful example of what guild advocacy can achieve.
We welcomed back a reporter whose job had been eliminated in last spring’s painful layoffs — a return made possible by our contract’s worker recall provision.
We unionized to fight for local news, and help SWVA journalists keep sharing the stories that matter most to our region.
Getting talented reporters back on the beat is a sign of that mission at work.
Guild members bring ‘local first’ approach to layout revamp
The Timesland News Guild is incredibly excited for the changes you’ll see in how our paper is laid out starting today. This ‘local first’ strategy came from our talented (and local!) copy editors during a conversation with management that our guild advocated for.
The shake-up will:
Showcase more local news in the A section. That’s what we do best and what readers turn to our paper for.
Ensure our hugely popular sports coverage gets its own dedicated section front again.
Create a more consistent, less confusing landing place for editorials/comics/puzzles.
Our newsroom’s commitment to its mission — covering local news and serving local readers — hasn’t wavered. These steps were taken with that in mind. We’re grateful to the copy editors who led this charge and to local management for listening.
Pick up a copy of today's paper, and let us know what you think!
Guilds: Our families are not bargaining chips
Sunday is National Parents' Day. In our network of news guilds, we've pushed Lee Enterprises to offer better parental leave so people can spend crucial time with their newborns.
Corporate listened and boosted its leave recently — but doesn't want to extend it to us unless we sacrifice other protections that we fought hard to win.
It's troubling that the company would try to use our children as leverage to get concessions. The additional parental leave is in effect now for many. But corporate is holding it over the guilds in an attempt to rewrite other parts of our contracts.
We're urging Lee Enterprises to do the right thing. These aren't tactics or strategies for us. These are our families.
We're united with Blue Ridge News Guild, Omaha World-Herald Guild, Montana News Guild and others in our determination to fight for fair treatment.
Ask Us Anything: Timesland News Guild does Reddit AMA
In a first for Timesland, our guild’s executive committee logged onto Reddit for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) this month. We’re grateful to r/Virginia for inviting us to participate. Check out our thread here to see our discussion with the Reddit community.
Timesland newsroom comes together for dialogue on its future
Advocacy for local news in action: This morning, our newsroom started an in-depth dialogue about our future and what we can do to keep delivering the best coverage possible.
This is a conversation that our guild asked for after last month brought about a new round of layoffs.
Management heard us and agreed. Together, we’re working on ideas to keep providing the news that Southwest Virginia most needs.
We’re grateful to our guild’s labor-management liaisons for making this possible, our editors for being willing to listen and our entire newsroom for its fierce commitment to local journalism.
Award wins highlight importance of investing in local newsrooms
Our newsroom just took home 24 Virginia Press Association awards for its dogged work in 2020. The honors reinforce that what we do is worth investing in.
They also show the true cost of staffing cuts. Of 16 guild members named in our wins, five are no longer here — their jobs lost to layoffs or attrition.
In its write-up of our awards, our leaders quoted the high praise earned for our sweeping coverage of the pandemic. Left unsaid was four of the people who shared in that honor are gone. Three exited in the layoffs pushed through just a week earlier. One departed for a new job last year and was never replaced.
We netted an impressive four honors for design work including recognition of our front pages. Each winner was crafted by local designers who know our community. In late 2020, our copy desk would be slashed in half and our page design shipped to out-of-state hubs that mass produce papers.
Local news is a calling. One that requires many boots on the ground. We're so proud of what everyone in our newsroom accomplished last year in the face of unprecedented, impossible circumstances.
We hope Lee Enterprises will read the VPA comments. This is work worth supporting:
## Judge: Exceptional reporting. This is more than reporting on COVID-19. This is well-planned coverage of a once-in-a-lifetime event.
## Judge: Interesting, well-written stories accompanied by a beautiful design.
## Judge: It would be difficult enough to capture the unique perspective of this photo, but to be able to get it and also such an emotional look on the subject's face is incredible photography.
## Judge: This is stellar investigative journalism that dissects complex government disfunction, finds the heart of the story -- how children and families are impacted -- and presents it with intelligence and compassion. This is work of consequence, and the most important work that can be undertaken by journalists.
## Judge: This is the kind of thoughtful, witty column that readers want to read. When you have something to say, people listen. Well done.
Sale announced for building that has housed newspaper since 1914
This morning’s news that our building has a buyer is emotional for our newsroom.
Campbell Avenue has been our home since 1914. For 107 years, we’ve documented the history of Southwest Virginia with this corner of downtown serving as our nerve center. We don’t know yet where we’ll end up next.
The words of 1936 editor H. Powell Chapman — writing on the occasion of the paper’s golden anniversary — are echoing in our minds today.
We know they still ring true for us. We hope they resonate with our corporate owners as we seek a new home and look ahead to the next 107 years:
“Today, on its fiftieth birthday, the Times can but repeat what it said ten years ago: It is thoroughly in love with its job and it intends to make of that job the utmost possible as an instrument of service and usefulness and helpfulness to this city, this section, this state.”
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Klein-Davis
Timesland contract results in one staff reinstatement after layoffs
For Immediate Release: April 21, 2021
Contact: (540) 339-7635
ROANOKE, Va. — The Iowa-based corporation that owns The Roanoke Times has finalized the details of its recently announced plan to slash newsroom jobs at the paper.
These layoffs, which take effect Friday, are part of a series of cutbacks imposed since the local paper was purchased by Lee Enterprises last year. The newsroom has lost more than 40% of its staff since early 2020 between this week’s layoffs and prior cuts.
The company’s announcement initiated a period during which people could consider buyouts or other arrangements in order to reduce involuntary layoffs.
One person who had faced an involuntary layoff was able to return through that process. Lee Enterprises hadn’t historically offered that option, but the guild fought for it in the labor contract it ratified earlier this year.
Still, the cuts are deep.
One week ago, Lee Enterprises announced it was moving to eliminate nine jobs at the paper. That included four reporters, three editorial assistants, one copy editor and the newsroom’s last remaining digital editor.
“The damage is not just the loss of jobs,” said Amy Friedenberger, a reporter and guild organizer. “This region depends on The Roanoke Times for high-quality journalism, and the people of Southwest Virginia are not well-served by the continued erosion of this newsroom.”
The guild is meeting with local managers as the newsroom reorganizes to compensate for the staffers lost to this new round of rollbacks.
“Losing yet more of our team has been incredibly difficult,” said Alicia Petska, a reporter and guild secretary. “We are heartbroken both personally and professionally.”
“Our focus going forward remains on our readers. We’re determined to keep fighting for them and to find ways to continue providing the best coverage possible.”
The journalists being lost this week include the beat reporters who specialized in covering health care, K-12 education, Virginia Tech, and Radford/Pulaski County.
The restructured newsroom will have a staff of 37 — down from about 64 in early 2020 — reporters, photographers, copy editors, editors and other professionals.
The guild’s contract ensures unionized workers will get certain guaranteed severance benefits. No such protections had been in place prior to the newsroom’s decision to organize last year.
"I remain grateful to the Timesland News Guild, my fellow colleagues, for securing a contract with critical benefits related to layoffs — including a two-week notice period, the option for volunteers and more generous severance — which made the effects of the company's actions on employees less heinous," said Henri Gendreau, a reporter and one of the journalists whose job is being eliminated by this week’s corporate cuts.
### About The Roanoke Times: Serving Southwest Virginia since its founding in 1886, The Roanoke Times publishes a daily newspaper with about 30,000 print subscribers and more than 40,000 digital readers. It is the largest professional news outlet in the region.
### About The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America: The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 24,000 journalists and other media workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, including The Roanoke Times, Laker Weekly, The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress, The Virginian-Pilot and The Washington Post.
Lee Enterprises to lay off 9 local newsroom staffers at The Roanoke Times
For Immediate Release: April 12, 2021
Contact: (540) 339-7635
ROANOKE, Va. — Iowa-based Lee Enterprises announced Monday it plans to lay off nine people at The Roanoke Times, more than 20% of the unionized staff, effective April 23.
“These layoffs mark another difficult day for The Roanoke Times and its continued survival in Southwest Virginia,” said Alison Graham, an investigative reporter and union vice chair. “Our corporate owners have once again put short-sighted profit goals over both long-term solutions and the newspaper’s mission to deliver vital local news.”
The Roanoke Times has seen its newsroom staff slashed by more than 25% since early 2020, when it was acquired by Lee Enterprises.
The additional cuts announced Monday will further weaken local journalism at a time when Southwest Virginia deserves more coverage and more investment.
“More cuts won’t make us profitable — only investment can do that,” said Tonia Moxley, a veteran reporter and chair of the union. “In 2012, we had more than 100 staffers and 90,000 subscribers. Today, we have 46 staffers and 30,000 subscribers. More cuts mean fewer readers.”
The Timesland News Guild’s first contract, ratified March 10, required the company to provide two weeks’ notice of any layoffs and will guarantee staffers certain severance benefits. No such protections had been in place prior to the newsroom’s decision to unionize in 2020.
The cuts being imposed will reduce the newsroom to a staff of 37 — down from 46 — reporters, photographers, copy editors, editors and other professionals.
“This round of layoffs is yet another example of how little Lee Enterprises cares for local news gathering,” said Tad Dickens, a longtime reporter and a union vice chair. “Profits reign over public knowledge.”
The layoffs follow the outsourcing of the newspaper’s page design work to out-of-state corporate hubs last year as well as the shuttering of the Christiansburg office long used by its New River Valley bureau. The newspaper’s flagship office in downtown Roanoke was listed for sale in January.
Despite these developments, the local staffers who serve the community have remained committed to sharing the region’s stories and delivering crucial information in an unprecedented time.
In the past year, Timesland journalists have secured outside fellowships to investigate complex stories about health care and education, won recognition from the Associated Press Sports Editors and been honored for excellence in covering the region’s agricultural community.
In March 2020, Lee Enterprises purchased about half of Virginia’s daily newspapers in a deal struck with prior owner BH Media Group.
Six months later, it began axing newsroom jobs across its new acquisitions. The Timesland News Guild was able to forestall deeper cuts at the time as its contract negotiations were ongoing.
The newsroom now enters a period during which workers can negotiate buyouts or other agreements in order to reduce involuntary layoffs.
That process will take several days to complete. Lee Enterprises said it plans to eliminate four reporters, one digital editor, one copyeditor and three editorial assistants.
### About The Roanoke Times: Serving Southwest Virginia since its founding in 1886, The Roanoke Times publishes a daily newspaper with about 30,000 print subscribers and more than 40,000 digital readers. It is the largest professional news outlet in the region.
### About The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America: The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 24,000 journalists and other media workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, including The Roanoke Times, Laker Weekly, The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress, The Virginian-Pilot and The Washington Post.
Timesland journalists gain raises, protections with first Lee Enterprises contract
For Immediate Release: March 10, 2021
Contact: (540) 339-7635
ROANOKE, Va. — Journalists at The Roanoke Times and Laker Weekly have voted 37-1 to ratify a contract with newspaper owner Lee Enterprises that includes employee pay raises and secures important benefits.
This is the first contract for the newsroom union that formed last year. The Timesland News Guild represents more than 40 employees at The Roanoke Times and Laker Weekly.
“Today is a watershed moment in my 21 years with The Roanoke Times,” said Tonia Moxley, a reporter and chair of the union. “For the first time in my working life in Virginia, I can't be fired without just cause. My coworkers and I have the right to union representation in disputes with management and a range of other protections. With this contract, we finally have a seat at the table and the right to meet regularly with management to advocate not just for worker concerns, but for the best interests of readers. It's a new day.”
Through the tireless advocacy and commitment of Timesland journalists and staffers, this contract proposal achieves pay raises and begins addressing wage disparities. Among the highlights of the contract:
Most union members will get a raise of 2%, a significant victory the union hopes to build on in future years to ensure dedicated people can afford to stay in journalism. Lee fought proposals for any wage increases, but Timesland bargainers held firm.
Eleven employees — about a quarter of the newsroom — will get a raise in excess of 2% (from 2.8% to 12.1%) to begin taking long-overdue steps to correct salary inequities.
Union members are assured stronger severance protections, better parental leave, extra holiday pay, and a guaranteed 40-hour work week for full-time staffers.
The company must interview at least one member of a historically underrepresented group during hiring, a step toward ensuring diversity in the recruitment process.
“I have been awed by the selflessness and commitment of my colleagues in Timesland,” said Alicia Petska, a reporter and the union's secretary. “People put in long hours to fight for others in the newsroom and for future generations of journalists who deserve fair pay and fair benefits. By standing together, we've made gains that would not have been possible otherwise.”
Members of the Timesland bargaining committee spent eight months negotiating with the company.
“I’ve been working at the paper for almost a quarter of a century, but I’ve never really had a say in the working conditions, and it’s good to finally have a voice and be heard,” said Howard Wimmer, a copy editor. “The bargaining team did an excellent job of representing their coworkers and fighting for what we think is fair and equitable.”
The guild did not achieve everything it sought in this first contract. The company carried out its planned increases in health care costs and refused to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth as holidays.
But members of the Timesland News Guild believe the final contract marks a significant development toward achieving a more just, equitable and transparent workplace.
“This is a first contract that the members at The Roanoke Times should rightfully be proud of,” said Paul Reilly, local representative of the Washington Baltimore News Guild and chief negotiator. “While we didn’t achieve all of our goals, due to the solidarity of our members, we’ve made a giant first step in that direction.”
The contract will be in effect for one year.
### About The Roanoke Times: Serving Roanoke and Southwest Virginia since its founding in 1886 The Roanoke Times publishes a daily print and online newspaper to about 30,000 print subscribers and more than 40,000 daily digital readers. The largest professional news outlet in Southwest Virginia, The Roanoke Times employs 46 journalists.
### About The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America: The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 24,000 journalists and other media workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, including The Charlottesville Daily Progress, The Virginian-Pilot, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
Timesland News Guild votes on first contract with Lee Enterprises
After an arduous eight months of bargaining, the Timesland News Guild has come to a tentative agreement with Lee Enterprises on a contract, which we hope to ratify by March 10.
Through the tireless advocacy and commitment of Timesland journalists and staffers, this contract proposal achieves pay raises, begins addressing wage disparities and secures important benefits. Among the highlights of the contract proposal:
Most members would get a raise of 2%. This is a significant victory that we would hope to build on in future years to ensure dedicated journalists can afford to stay in journalism. Lee Enterprises fought proposals for any wage increases but our bargainers held firm.
Eleven people (about a quarter of the newsroom) would get a raise in excess of 2% to begin taking long-overdue steps to correct salary inequities.
Members would be assured stronger severance protections, better parental leave and a guaranteed 40-hour work week for full-time staffers.
Timesland members will be voting on the contract proposal with balloting scheduled to start Wednesday, March 3, and end Tuesday, March 9.
This would be the first contract for the newsroom union that formed in 2020. The Timesland News Guild represents over 40 staffers at The Roanoke Times and Laker Weekly.
The guild is dedicated to preserving strong local news coverage for Southwest Virginia.
The Roanoke Times to lay off 10 employees for Iowa-based owner Lee Enterprises’ plan
For Immediate Release: Sept. 4, 2020
Contact: (540) 339-7635
ROANOKE, Va. — The Roanoke Times will lay off 10 employees in October as part of Iowa-based owner Lee Enterprises’ plan to consolidate newspaper design work in the Midwest.
Lee informed members of the Timesland News Guild bargaining committee on Thursday afternoon that the company had rejected the union’s proposal to establish a hub in Roanoke that would keep design work on site and provide a new revenue stream through custom publications and web services for area businesses.
Despite receiving emails from more than 1,500 readers urging the company to keep jobs in Virginia — as well as letters from numerous business groups, elected leaders and 122 former Roanoke Times journalists — Lee Enterprises officials declined to seek a new opportunity to sustain local journalism in the region.
“This is a truly sad day for The Roanoke Times and for Southwest Virginia,” said Tonia Moxley, chairwoman of the Timesland News Guild, a unit of The Washington-Baltimore News Guild (NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America). “Despite an opportunity to embrace and grow in Virginia, Lee Enterprises has chosen to outsource our journalism jobs to the Midwest. I’m heartbroken because our newsroom is losing so much homegrown and amazing talent, but it’s really a loss for the region and the state. On behalf of the guild, I want to thank all our supporters, including state senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle, dozens of local leaders and hundreds of readers for advocating for your local news coverage.”
The elimination of 10 copy editing and design jobs amounts to nearly 20% of the newsroom’s unionized workforce. These include three full-time and seven part-time positions.
Management began notifying affected employees Thursday afternoon.
“I am sending this email to let you know your position is being eliminated effective close of business Friday, October 23, 2020,” it read. “As you know, this is a corporate restructuring that involves the Lee Design Center, and in no way is a reflection of the work you have done here at The Roanoke Times.”
The company’s design hubs are located in Madison, Wisconsin, and Munster, Indiana. While the company says it is willing to hire designers who would work remotely, Lee has not provided any guarantee yet that employees laid off from The Roanoke Times would be hired. And the company is not currently hiring copy editors.
The guild will proceed to bargain aggressively with the company over the terms of the layoffs, to ensure that workers receive fair severance, benefits and opportunities.
Starting in October, the pages of The Roanoke Times no longer will be produced in Roanoke.
The union expresses its deepest gratitude to all the community members, elected officials and business leaders who gave their time, energy and support to advocating a plan that would maintain and grow jobs in Roanoke. We are humbled by the hundreds of comments readers submitted to Lee company officials that extolled the importance of The Roanoke Times to their lives, that stressed the need for local journalism, that highlighted the unique perspectives and decades of institutional knowledge that local copy editors and designers bring to the newspaper. We are sorry the company does not agree.
### About The Roanoke Times: Serving Roanoke and Southwest Virginia since its founding in 1886 by M.H. Claytor, The Roanoke Times publishes a daily print and online newspaper to about 30,000 print subscribers and more than 40,000 daily digital readers. Widely recognized for hard-hitting investigative stories on subprime lending, urban renewal, segregation, poverty, immigration and government corruption, the paper has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist three times. In the mid-2000s, The Roanoke Times was ranked as the best-read newspaper of its size in the country, according to market research firm Scarborough. It remains the largest professional news outlet in Southwest Virginia, employing roughly 50 journalists. After Oct. 23, it will employ roughly 40 journalists.
### About The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America: The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 24,000 journalists and other media workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, including The Charlottesville Daily Progress, The Virginian-Pilot, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
Member spotlight: Timesland reporter Claire Mitzel sponsors future journos
Claire Mitzel
It’s never too early to help the next aspiring watchdog.
Only a year out of college herself, Timesland News Guild member Claire Mitzel is already helping the next wave of young journalists learn their craft.
Mitzel recently sponsored memberships to Investigative Reporters and Editors for two college students, recruiting them via Twitter.
“It’s a great way to help everybody else out,” Mitzel said. “I know I can’t do a whole lot yet, but here’s one way I can make some sort of difference.”
IRE, a nonprofit affiliated with the University of Missouri School of Journalism that has operated since 1975, provides conferences, training and resources for investigative reporters, editors, researchers and students.
In March, Mitzel came to The Roanoke Times to cover K-12 education and started work three days before the novel coronavirus shut down Virginia public schools. Before that, she was a government watchdog reporter at The News Leader in Staunton.
And she knows IRE’s work first-hand. As a student at the University of Missouri, Mitzel worked at IRE Journal, a quarterly publication dedicated to investigative reporting. There, she wrote about journalists at work across the country, from Pulitzer Prize-winners to reporters toiling at small local papers.
“I got to talk with journalists basically about stories they did, which is just like a dream — to talk to journalists about journalism,” Mitzel said. “It was also just terrific because it was just another way to expand my writing skills.”
She wants to provide similar opportunities to other young journalists and help build newsrooms that are more diverse.
Mitzel stipulated that her IRE sponsorships should go to a person of color or a student attending either a community college or a public university.
“I'm a product of a public school,” she said.
Her support will provide a year’s IRE membership to a student at the University of Texas at Austin and another at George Fox University in Oregon, according to Amy Johnston, IRE member coordinator.
IRE members have access to thousands of tipsheets compiled by experienced investigative reporters, more than 30 government databases and other digital tools to enhance reporting, as well as conferences and training sessions.
Sponsoring a student membership is easy, and costs only $25, Mitzel said.
For more information on IRE student sponsorships, visit https://www.ire.org/membership/student-sponsorships.
Timesland Guild pushes back against company proposals harmful to local journalism
The Timesland News Guild is pushing back against a number of proposals from Lee Enterprises that would further erode our local journalism and worsen our already challenging working conditions.
It's disappointing that in the early months of Lee Enterprises' new ownership of The Roanoke Times, the company is making proposals that don't recognize the value of the journalists. We've only been bargaining for a month, and while both sides have expressed interest in working efficiently toward a deal on a contract, the company is digging its heels into a few harmful proposals.
Those include:
The right to require employees to take furloughs, or unpaid time off, at any time the company likes for whatever length of time the company likes. Notice would need to be provided to the union just two weeks in advance. Company representatives said they hope furloughs like the ones we endured last quarter would never happen again, but they insist they need this flexibility.
The right to cut the hours of full-time employees from 40 to 30. Though employees would retain their benefits in this scenario, their pay would be severely diminished by the reduction in hours. Company representatives claim this would help them to "retain talent" while responding to the hardships of local newspapers.
The right to use temporary employees to replace full-time employees. Temporary employees would only work for The Roanoke Times for a few months and wouldn't receive benefits. In our discussions about temporary employees, the union has included language saying the use of temporary employees should not result in the layoff of an employee, elimination of a bargaining unit position or a reduction of bargaining unit hours. Company representatives have repeatedly eliminated this language in their counter proposals. If holes are created by the loss of full-time positions, they want the ability to use temporary employees to fill those gaps.
Central to the company's arguments for each of these proposals is its need for flexibility — the flexibility to slash jobs and hours. These proposals would gravely diminish the quality of our journalism and be a disservice to our community and readers.
We're well aware of the negative effects of furloughs on our newsroom. We can't do more, or even maintain what we currently do, with less. And that's what all of these proposals would leave us with.
The bargaining team is vehemently opposed to these proposals and fighting them, and we need the journalists and the readers to be aware of these proposals and take them seriously. We urge the company to work with the journalists toward a fair contract and reconsider its efforts to grind down our newsroom. We stand ready to work with the company on ways to help grow and improve The Roanoke Times.
Journalists of The Roanoke Times denounce sexual harassment coverage, demand transparent investigation into allegations
For Immediate Release: June 22, 2020
Contact: (540) 339-7635
ROANOKE, Va. — Journalists of The Roanoke Times and Laker Weekly are united in denouncing The Roanoke Times’ recent news coverage of a wrongful termination suit brought against the newspaper by a former human resources worker who alleged a current newsroom manager sexually harassed her and others.
The Roanoke Times coverage of the lawsuit, which was settled on May 27, did not live up to the newspaper’s longstanding ethical guidelines for reporting about ourselves. Two weeks ago, members of the Timesland News Guild’s executive committee met with the paper’s regional editor to express concern over the allegations and disappointment with how the lawsuit’s filing and settlement were covered in the paper. The company has violated the trust of our readers and damaged the credibility of this institution and everyone who works here. The regional editor:
Broke precedent by delaying coverage of the lawsuit after it had been made public, taking 20 days from the lawsuit’s discovery by a court reporter until publishing a story;
Forbade a reporter assigned to the story from seeking comment from pertinent sources, an editorial decision that was made based on advice from a company lawyer (a partner at the same law firm that was defending the company in court);
Removed from a draft story all details enumerating the sexual harassment allegations and claims of company inaction and retaliation, in a meritless claim that the sexual misconduct allegations were not relevant to the lawsuit;
Mandated the placement of the story at the bottom of the business page and headline wording that made no mention of sexual misconduct or wrongful termination in an extraordinary instance of editorial overreach;
Directed staff to delete Twitter and Facebook posts that promoted the story of the lawsuit’s filing, hiding the story from potentially thousands of additional readers.
These editorial decisions further erode the trust of readers in an age of rising suspicion about the reliability of news coverage. The journalists of The Roanoke Times want our readers to know that we reject these editing decisions and continue to fight for the highest journalistic standards in all our coverage. We are deeply disappointed that some of the newspaper’s leadership does not share our commitment to full and fair coverage of our company.
On June 15, the guild’s executive committee, representing about 50 journalists and staff, sent a letter to management calling for the company to commission a thorough and independent investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations described in the lawsuit. The company responded and insisted it had “followed the guidelines of our policy and conducted a full and thorough investigation.” It did not provide, as requested, a detailed copy of the company’s complaint procedures, nor respond to a request for an independent and transparent investigation of the sexual harassment allegations.
Given the manner in which The Roanoke Times handled news coverage of this lawsuit, we question the thoroughness and credibility of the company’s investigation into the claims.
We publicly call on Lee Enterprises to commission an independent, transparent investigation into these allegations and to share an unredacted report of the findings with all newsroom employees. Nothing less will ensure workplace safety.
### About The Roanoke Times: Serving Roanoke and Southwest Virginia since its founding in 1886 by M.H. Claytor, The Roanoke Times publishes a daily print and online newspaper to about 30,000 print subscribers and more than 40,000 daily digital readers. Widely recognized for hard-hitting investigative stories on subprime lending, urban renewal, segregation, poverty, immigration and government corruption, the paper has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist three times. In the mid-2000s, The Roanoke Times was ranked as the best-read newspaper of its size in the country, according to market research firm Scarborough. It remains the largest professional news outlet in Southwest Virginia, employing roughly 50 journalists.
### About The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America: The NewsGuild-CWA represents more than 24,000 journalists and other media workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, including The Charlottesville Daily Progress, The Virginian-Pilot, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.
Member spotlight: Blacksburg exhibit celebrates Timesland photograher Matt Gentry’s 40 years in news
Photo courtesy of The Roanoke Times
New River Valley photographer Matt Gentry covered recent #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations around Blacksburg. Gentry said he wants his work to tell the stories important to readers. A new gallery exhibit at the Blacksburg Museum & Cultural Center showcases Gentry’s 40-year career in photojournalism.
Matt Gentry
BLACKSBURG — Matt Gentry started his journalism career as a teenaged delivery boy for the long-defunct Blacksburg Sun newspaper in 1978. It was the start of more than decades in newspapers, much of it documenting the triumphs and tragedies of life in Southwest and Central Virginia for The Roanoke Times and the Charlottesville Daily Progress.
The theme of his long career? “Change,” he said.
From days spent in the darkroom to minutes filing digital galleries from a laptop, through all the change, Gentry has stayed true to the purpose of photojournalism: documentary storytelling.
Whether it’s Hokie football, a high-profile murder case or a Black Lives Matter demonstration, Gentry brings an artist’s eye and a newsman’s dedication to the facts to his work. The Timesland News Guild is proud to call him a member.
From June 10 to Aug. 21, the Blacksburg Museum & Cultural Center will feature a career retrospective of Gentry’s news photography, as well as artifacts that span the evolution of visual newsgathering.
For open hours and directions, visit the museum website. Note: social distancing measures will be in place in the gallery.
Follow Matt on Instagram @sharpiegentry.