Media Guild of the West members support journalist ownership

At a January 27, 2025, quarterly membership meeting, Media Guild of the West members voted 89% to 11% to authorize the following resolution:

Whereas, Media Guild of the West promotes better working conditions and greater professional autonomy for journalists and news workers;

Whereas, employee ownership and cooperatives are tools for workers to gain a greater say over their working conditions and to create fairer, longer-lasting jobs; 

Whereas, in recent years journalists and news workers across the U.S. have explored cooperative ownership and employee-management models as alternatives to traditional news ownership and management, including at the Long Beach Watchdog, The Appeal and Defector Media;

Whereas, journalist-run news outlets often emerge during strikes and mass layoffs at unionized newsrooms as a way for journalists to create their own jobs;

Therefore, be it resolved: The members of the Media Guild of the West, TNG-CWA Local 39213, support efforts by their local union to promote and endorse journalistically responsible public policies that encourage employee ownership and operation of media outlets. The Guild shall also support news cooperatives, journalist collectives or freelancers affiliating as bargaining units under terms set by the Guild’s Executive Committee.

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Media Guild of the West is a local union of The NewsGuild-CWA founded in 2019 that represents journalists and news workers in the Greater Southwest. Guild members work at the Arizona Republic, Austin-American Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Desert Sun, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Landing, Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal, Long Beach Watchdog, Los Angeles Times, Phoenix New Times, San Antonio Report, Southern California News Group and Texas Tribune.