Daily News Staff Walk Out

Daily News Staffers Walk Out for 24 Hours During a Brutal Week for Journalism

Unionized Daily News reporters held a one-day strike outside a coworking space used by reporters, Jan. 25, 2024. -Photo by Alek Krales/THE CITY

More than 50 unionized staff at the New York Daily News staged a 24-hour walkout on Thursday in protest of overtime cuts and slow-moving contract talks.

By Claudia Irizarry Aponte

The City

January 25, 2024

NEW YORK - More than 50 journalists at the New York Daily News went on a 24-hour walkout Thursday, protesting cuts to overtime and slow bargaining talks with the paper’s owner, the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, that have left them without a contract more than two and a half years after unionizing.

The Daily News’ 54 union members suspended work to protest a recent policy requiring staff to have prior approval in advance of any overtime, which limits journalists’ ability to report news as it happens, the union said in a press release Thursday morning. It is the first work stoppage by reporters at the tabloid since 1990.

“It used to be, you do the job until it’s done,” said Ellen Moynihan, a local beat reporter at the Daily News for eight years. “And we’re being told, ‘From now on we need you to keep track of your hours, and make sure you don’t go into overtime.’”

The cuts have been so steep that there are now two reporters single reporter covering both the state and federal courts citywide. Some desks do not have assigned editors, several reporters told THE CITY.

Once boasting the “largest circulation in America” and a staff of more than 4,000, the News has in recent years been battered by budget cuts, layoffs and a shrinking print circulation.

Since Alden purchased the newspaper in 2021, its journalists have been reporting without a physical newsroom. Staff unionized with the NewsGuild of New York that year and have been bargaining for a first contract ever since. Under its previous owner, the Daily News cut 50% of its editorial staff in 2018. 

The picket line gathered outside of a coworking space near Times Square on Thursday, which can only accommodate a “measly” five to six reporters at a time, Moynihan said. “That’s where the New York Daily News is run from.”

The union filed a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on Nov. 29 over management’s new overtime policy, and the two sides were bargaining as recently as Tuesday, several sources told THE CITY.

Dubbed the newspaper “killer,” Alden is one of the largest newspaper operators in the country and counts the Chicago Tribune and Denver Post in its portfolio.

Alden recently sold the struggling Baltimore Sun to David D. Smith, an ally of former President Donald Trump and chairman of the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The work stoppage was the latest high-profile labor action by local and digital media this week, as the industry reels from mass layoffs, cost-cutting and the rise of artificial intelligence. 

Unionized staff at the Los Angeles Times also walked out of the job for 24 hours last Friday as management threatened to lay off more than 20% of the newsroom. On Tuesday, 115 journalists there lost their jobs. Condé Nast and Forbes journalists in New York also went on temporary strikes this week. 

On Tuesday, reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who have been on strike since October 2022, denounced management’s use of artificial intelligence for an illustration published in the Jan. 21 edition of the newspaper as an “attempt to replace our labor,” a union official said.

More than two dozen supporters picketed in the rain outside the coworking space at 1412 Broadway, with chants of “down with Alden” and “hands off our overtime!” Several picketers held signs that read “Alden to News: Drop Dead,” an homage an iconic 1975 Daily News headline.

The work stoppage attracted support from allies in the labor movement, elected officials and readers — including actor Alec Baldwin, who showed up to the picket line in solidarity after reporter Michael Sheridan said on THE CITY’s FAQ NYC podcast that he hoped the actor would support their efforts.

“I thought I’d stop by and say I’m a thousand percent in support of all you workers in the Daily News,” he told reporters in a video that was shared with THE CITY. “I see these documentaries about the local paper being put out of business and closing, and everything local is dying and of course, the Daily News is the local paper here.”

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