Our Mission
Dec. 8, 2020
The journalists of the Austin American-Statesman and its community papers have served as pillars of the region for 150 years.
A community as engaged and invested as Austin deserves a publication that reflects those qualities in its quest to hold powerful parties accountable, give voice to the underrepresented and underserved, and celebrate the vibrancy of our Central Texas home.
For these reasons, we are forming a union to safeguard our future as a vital news provider, better preserving the resources we need to report on the issues and interests of our fellow community members.
Together, as the Austin NewsGuild, we are committed to standing in solidarity with our journalists of color. Our newsroom must commit to anti-racist and anti-prejudicial practices, from hiring and treatment of staff, to our coverage and interaction with our community.
Our union will work to meet our unwavering journalistic standards and provide the best possible product to our readers. We share this goal with our parent company Gannett, but we can only achieve it when our journalists have a seat at the table.
Our corporate owners continue to make decisions that affect our newspaper without our input, crippling our ability to provide quality journalism for our community. Positions have been eliminated. Benefits have been slashed. Promising young talent is out the door.
Austin is regularly named among the top places to live and fastest growing cities in the country. All the while, the American-Statesman continues to bleed talent.
To reverse this trend, we must receive fair and competitive compensation, stable benefits and career development opportunities. We must advocate for anti-racism in our newsroom to ensure equitable opportunities and a workplace as diverse as the populations we serve, and we must have more resources dedicated to our community's Spanish-language speakers.
We understand that our industry is up against its own set of challenges. But with the collective bargaining abilities ensured by a union, we can better focus on what we all came into this industry to do: inform our community while producing compelling journalism capable of evoking change.
No matter what, we will continue to advocate for the readers we serve. But moving forward as the Austin NewsGuild, we are also choosing to advocate for ourselves.
Signed,
The journalists of the Austin American-Statesman and those of the Bastrop Advertiser, Lake Travis View, Pflugerville Pflag, Round Rock Leader, Smithville Times, and Westlake Picayune:
Sarah Asch
Ryan Autullo
Peter Blackstock
Kirk Bohls
Kelsey Bradshaw
Addie Broyles
Rick Cantu
Kara Carlson
Hojun Choi
Nicole Cobler
Mike Craven
Daniel Davis
Cameron Drummond
Cedric Golden
Bridget Grumet
Katie Hall
Philip Jankowski
Jay Janner
Thomas Jones
Chuck Lindell
Rebeccah Macias
Madlin Mekelburg
Luz Moreno-Lozano
Brandon Mulder
Shonda Novak
Amanda O’Donnell
Matthew Odam
Claire Osborn
Heather Osbourne
Asher Price
Ana Ramirez
Bob Sechler
Deborah Sengupta Stith
Veronica Serrano
Cat Vasquez
Alyssa Vidales
Brontë Wittpenn