Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Media Scope
Papers Make News, Publishers Squirm COMMENTARYBy Andrea WoodWhen a newspaper strike makes news, and a strike newspaper is an aspect of that news, the practice of journalism collides with the business of news.Reporters are obliged to tell all sides of the strike story but newspaper owners would rather practice public relations. Newspaper owners thrive on the constitutional right of a free press but some would, if they could, stop a strike newspaper from being published.Full disclosure: This writer, whose newspaper is one of four directly involved in this strike story, has a point of view.The company that owns The Business Journal is being paid by the Youngstown Newspaper Guild for providing professional services and office space to facilitate publication of its strike newspaper, The Valley Voice. The company that owns the Farm and Dairy, Lyle Printing and Publishing Co. of Salem, is being paid by the union to print the The Valley Voice.And the people who own and manage The Vindicator are angry that in just four days, 179 Vindicator employees -- the reporters, photographers, page designers, circulation and classified personnel who went on strike Nov. 16 -- were out on the street with 51,000 copies of their strike newspaper."It really ticks me off," said Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator, in a Nov. 19 interview with WKBN-TV after it was disclosed the Youngstown Newspaper Guild was receiving technical consulting services and office space from the Youngstown Publishing Co.In an interview with The Jambar, published by the students of Youngstown State University, Brown went further: "It is pretty ridiculous that a union goes out on strike and gets in bed with a non-union organization." Then, in a story Nov. 24 that disclosed Lyle Printing and Publishing Co. was printing The Valley Voice, Brown said, "I find it unbelievable that our union is using two nonunion publications -- both of which are direct competitors of The Vindicator -- to produce a strike paper to attack the only union newspaper in the Valley."What Brown did not say, and his newspaper did not report, is what the guild president Anthony S. Markota, explained to every news organization who asked. "Union printing companies are owned by nonunion management," he said. "We went to two of them, and they both refused to print a strike paper."But the battle for public opinion -- in a region of the country where unions are stronger than elsewhere yet also blamed by many for lost manufacturing jobs -- put the publishers of the Farm and Dairy and The Business Journal on the defensive. Is business "just business" if the customer is a striking union?Scot M. Darling, chief executive officer of Lyle Printing, issued a statement (still not reported by The Vindicator at press time) that noted his company "offers web press services to a number of local companies. We would not deny our printing services to those who have the ability and resources to produce a newspaper of local interest," he said."We hope the current negotiations at The Vindicator between management and labor reach an amicable conclusion," Darling continued. "In the meantime, and thereafter, we will continue to offer our commercial printing services to those, who like us, cherish the free enterprise system of a democratic society that values freedom of the press."The Youngstown Publishing Co. similarly issued a statement that pointed out its creative service division has provided professional services to the Catholic Exponent and the Buckeye Review. "We are not in business to turn down business and the guild is compensating us for its services," said the company president.By the time you read this, the strike by Local 34011 of The Newspaper GuildCommunications Workers of America could be nearing an end. Or it could be at an impasse that, if prolonged, could alter the regional media landscape. Whatever happens, business will still be business."