Updated 08.29.03
Media coverage
of the dispute with The Providence Journal
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Providence Phoenix News Editor Ian Donnis's coverage of The Providence Journal has earned awards from:
• New England Press Association, first place, business-economic reporting
• Rhode Island Press Association, first, business features
December 18. 2003
Peace breaks out at the ProJo
Although a likely contract for the Providence Newspaper Guild represents good news, the damage from a divisive four-year dispute will take time to fade
December 4, 2003
The Guild goes on a media offensive
Given the general paucity of media coverage about the long-running dispute between the Providence Newspaper Guild and management at the Providence Journal, it comes as something of a shock to hear a commercial on talk-news station WHJJ-AM describing the situation.
November 13, 2003
Lockdown on Fountain Street
The Providence Journal’s unwillingness to cover a large rally that reached into its own newsroom reflects an ongoing double standard on news coverage
District 1 Boosts Providence Newspaper Workers (Account of the same rally from CWA.org)
November 7, 2003
Contract talks prove elusive
September 26, 2003
As the ProJo Turns
Plot thickens on Belo's TV quest
September 5, 2003
As the ProJo Turns
Advertisers give the Guild a lift
August 29, 2003
As the ProJo Turns
Belo doesn't bite on ethics apple
July 31, 2003
As the ProJo Turns
The Guild prods Belo on ethics
July 10, 2003
As the ProJo Turns
The Guild strikes back after "impasse"
June 6, 2003
As the ProJo Turns
The Pulitzer quest, and two stances on expungement
May 30, 2003
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Other recent stories
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| April 18, 2003 Moving in fits and starts at the Providence Journal - -The Guild Reporter, The Newspaper Guild |
| Guild executive committee member Jordan Malik's letter to the editor in response to a CityPages.com story about about the union/management battle at the Knight-Ridder-owned St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. |
Belo's bonanza
The FCC is poised to unleash big media, paving the way for the ProJo’s corporate parent to buy a TV station in Rhode Island
May 23, 2003
As the ProJo Turns
A brief respite from the union-management standoff
May 2, 2003
Losing the beat
The ability of out-of-town papers to offer better early coverage of the Station fire shows how the Providence Journal has become a less surefooted institution
April 17, 2003
NLRB judges scorns editor's credibility in Ziner case
April 10, 2003
A sudden halt to contract hopes
February 28, 2003
West Warwick fire overshadows the Guild's 30th Follies
January 23, 2003
Cianci's secret plan to buy the Journal revealed
December 13, 2002
Investigative team back to full strength
November 29, 2002
Management appeals NLRB decision
November 1, 2002
Guild and management back at the negotiating table
October 18, 2002
Feeling inhibited
with Ethics week (former Journal Executive Editor Charles McCorkle Hauser's spiked op-ed)
October 11, 2002
Guild seeks new talks with management
September 20, 2002
NLRB judge rules in Guild's favor
September 13, 2002
A mixed message on the Harwood-Collins case
July 12, 2002
Marketing comes into the fore at projo.com
June, 21, 2002
Journal gets the goods in rampage story
June 7, 2002
Rampage makes for a difficult self-examination at the Journal
May 24, 2002
Covering the case (about media coverage of Cianci trial)
May 10, 2002
The persistence of memory
Last week's death of Brian Dickinson, a remarkable figure in Rhode Island journalism, was recognized with a lengthy front-page obituary in the Providence Sunday Journal. As the May 5 obit noted, Dickinson, 64, "stirred thousands of readers with his masterful, elegant columns long after Lou Gehrig's disease left him with the control only of his eyes." The irony is that by having deleted the byline of Brian C. Jones, the outspoken former staffer who wrote most of the piece, the Journal denied another part of its own institutional history.
March 29, 2002
Paper faced scant competition for NENA recognition
Although the Providence Journal has suggested in several full-page house ads that its competitors in the New England Newspaper Association's Newspaper of the Year contest included the region's two largest dailies, the ProJo had only one other competitor in the contest and it wasn't the Boston Globe or Boston Herald.
March 23, 2002
Guild
takes issue with NENA's plaudits for paper
It's usually
a source of collective pride for staffers when their newspaper wins an
award, particularly a big regional recognition. But in a sign of the acrimony
of the ongoing dispute between management at the Providence Journal and
the Providence Newspaper Guild, Guild members last week protested plans
by the New England Newspaper Association to cite the ProJo as Newspaper
of the Year in the metro category.
March 8, 2002
Sinking
feeling
After
two years of intensifying internal conflict, many of the fears about Belo's
downsizing of the Providence Journal are coming to fruition
March 1, 2002
Divide
remains wide with start of NLRB hearing
Relations between the
Providence Journal Company and the Providence Newspaper Guild remain characteristically
sour even after the start of a National Labor Relations Board hearing
on Monday, February 25, was followed by a round of last-minute bargaining
between the two sides. According to the Guild's NLRB coverage Web site,
www.journalontrial.org,
the company rejected a Guild proposal after a two-hour negotiating session
on February 26 and made no proposals of its own. The lack of progress
led to a resumption of the NLRB hearing, which began a day earlier at
Pawtucket City Hall with opening arguments by lawyers for the newspaper
and the NLRB.
Feb 21, 2002
NLRB
showdown looms after the laughs
As last-minute preparations
continue for the Providence Newspaper Guild's annual Follies, there's
no shortage of real-life inspiration for the pointed send-up of the year
in news. Some wags point directly to the pages of the Providence Journal,
where a gaffe led to the free publication February 15 -- a day late --
of a full page of previously paid for Valentine's Day greetings. The paper
tried to cover its tracks with the heading, "Love springs eternal! The
day after Valentine's Day, our readers' hearts are aflutter with these
messages to their loved ones." For in-house critics, though, who see the
miscue as typical of slipping standards under the Belo Corporation, the
attempted catch-up was more lame than game.
Jan 18, 2002
Newport closure triggers reporter's departure
The Providence Journal's decision to close its Newport bureau has already taken a toll. The closure prompted Jerry O'Brien, the well-regarded bureau manager and 2000 winner of the Journal's $5000 in-house reporting prize, to abruptly leave the paper.
Jan 10, 2002
Newport
bureau bites the dust
Although Newport is probably Rhode Island's best-known
community, the Providence Journal has closed its bureau in the City-by-the-Sea
-- a move that past and present staffers see as a symbolic retreat from
the paper's commitment to statewide coverage.
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BACKGROUND
9.15.2000
11.02.2000
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for
"CueCat"Dec. 13, 2001
Buyouts
cut deep on Fountain Street
At a time when most media companies are cutting spending,
the Providence Journal is looking to fill a number of jobs. More than
anything else, though, the situation stems from the extent to which a
recently implemented buyout has thinned the paper's journalistic resources.
More than 90 employees took the buyout -- more than twice the number anticipated
by management -- including 52 members of the Providence Newspaper Guild.
Nov. 23, 2001
An
outspoken staffer leaves Fountain Street
Before he left the Providence Journal earlier this month
as part of a buyout, Brian C. Jones took on an array of assignments during
his 35-year tenure, from managing the Newport bureau and writing a weekly
feature about unsung individuals to reporting on banking and the environment.
But the thing that set him apart was his willingness to publicly speak
about the Journal's internal issues and direction -- a stance that led
some to perceive him as the conscience of the newsroom.
Oct. 25, 2001
Guild
defers boycott vote until after buyout
Although the Providence Newspaper Guild mustered an impressive
turnout of some 200 unionists for an October 20 protest outside the offices
of the Providence Journal, the union has sheathed its most potent weapon
-- a possible boycott of the ProJo -- until after the dust clears from
the implementation of an impending buyout.
Oct. 11, 2001
Bad
to worse on Fountain Street
It's not as if the Providence Journal's newsroom has been a
bastion of stellar morale in recent times. But concerns about sliding
standards intensified after the Providence Journal Company last week unveiled
a buyout proposal that could thin the editorial ranks and diminish the
paper's institutional memory. Meanwhile, repercussions are still being
felt from the episode in which a veteran reporter was pulled from a domestic
violence story after a subject complained over the summer, and the Providence
Newspaper Guild has scheduled a controversial vote that could lead to
a boycott of Rhode Island's dominant media institution.
Sept. 7, 2001
Bylines
set to diminish on Fountain Street
The old saw is that the only people who notice bylines
are reporters and their mothers. But judging by the reaction to three
previous byline strikes, the Providence Newspaper Guild sees pulling the
names as an effective way to publicize the union's protracted stalemate
with Belo-backed management at the Providence Journal.
August 16 - 23, 2001
Wishful
thinking
Persistent rumors that the New York Times Company will
buy the Providence Journal speak mostly to poisoned morale -- and concerns
that the newspaper's tradition is coming undone. By Ian Donnis, News Editor,
The Providence Phoenix.
August 2 - 9, 2001
'ProJo'
editors cave on reporter after subject complains
Although editors at the Providence Journal apparently found
no fault with her work on a domestic violence case, veteran reporter Karen
Lee Ziner has been taken off the story after a complaint from the victim
-- a development that insiders regard as a disturbing newsroom precedent.
By Ian Donnis, News Editor, The Providence Phoenix.
July 19 - 26, 2001
'Times'
scribe rebuts Belo chairman on 'ProJo' "exodus"
Chris Chivers, who left the Providence Journal in 1999
for a reporting job with the New York Times, has lent an unexpected boost
to his former colleagues, taking Belo Corporation chairman Robert W. Decherd
to task for downplaying the role of poor union-management relations in
hastening a wave of newsroom departures from the Journal. By Ian Donnis,
News Editor, The Providence Phoenix.
May 31 - June 7, 2001
Strategic
partners
The Providence Journal is a natural resource for WRNI-AM.
But the very things that make it an appealing alliance -money and influence
- carry their own risks. By Ian Donnis, News Editor, The Providence Phoenix.
February 8 - 15, 2001
Belo
lays an egg
The Dallas-based owner of the Providence Journal has ambitious
plans for integrating its media empire with the Web, but some early stumbles
have critics wondering about the vision thing. By Ian Donnis, News Editor,
The Providence Phoenix.
November 23 - 30,
2000
Disappearing
ink
The Providence Journal's coverage of stories in which the
paper had a stake used to be inconsistent. But since it was bought by
Belo, the commitment to self-scrutiny has withered. By Ian Donnis, News
Editor, The Providence Phoenix.
 Public Broadcasting for North Texas |
May 18, 2001
Belo at Center of RI Labor Dispute
DALLAS - Ellen Liberman was a reporter at the Providence Journal until just a few weeks ago. By Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 Reporter
March 1, 2001
Brown (U.) Daily Herald: ProJo reconsidered after union-busting ways revealed
The second
time that I called Tom McDonough, I was both lucky and unlucky. I was
lucky because this time it was he, and not his secretary, who picked up
the phone. I was unlucky because when I told him that I was writing a
column for The Herald, he declined to make any comment. By Peter Asen,
Herald Opinions Columnist
Oct. 14, 1996
Decherd's
deal of the year
"...despite the talk of leaving the Journal Bulletin
in local control, it's doubtful that arrangement will last long if margins
aren't improved to more Belo-esque levels."
1997 - now
Providence
Newspaper Guild newsletters