Wednesday 31st August: Reach staff go on strike over wages

August 31, 2022

Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Esther.

More than 1,000 journalists at the UK’s largest newspaper publisher Reach are walking out today after talks fell through over the weekend. Here, Press Gazette talks to some of them to find out why they're heading to the picket lines.

The strike is primarily about wages, with staff increasingly struggling to make ends meet. A number have had to take second jobs to pay bills. In 2020 at the start of the pandemic, non-furloughed staff took a pay cut, and given inflation rates, staff are currently looking at a real terms pay cut approaching 10%.

It certainly isn't the case of affordability for the company. Last year, Reach posted a pre-tax profit of £143.5m. Executive pay has also caused anger, with chief exec Jim Mullen's overall remuneration package totalling over £4 million; a 743% increase on the year before and 104 times the median pay package at the company.

Tweet Tiles are "a new, customizable way to expand the creative surface area of a tweet" that could give news publishers a way to stand out in feeds. This might look like a trivial design tweak, but they'll be distinct from normal URL previews, and may well help highlight articles for publishers.

This is very much from the perspective of a publisher with an existing audience, but it shows the importance of treating the newsletter as a product you're launching, and marketing it accordingly. Some great tips here, although none beat the tactics I saw RocaNews using on Instagram yesterday.

One inherent disadvantage of media companies when talking about platforms is their size. Compared to Facebook or Google, a publisher will never be able to negotiate with any sort of heft. That might actually change. A good look at what changes the US's new Journalism Competition and Preservation Act could bring in, and who would actually benefit. Plus a solid explanation about how insane this whole paying for links thing is.

New podcast:

In this teaser episode, Chris, Peter and Esther discuss their plans for the day, and which sessions they’re most looking forward to. The Publisher Podcast Summit is designed for publishers of all shapes and sizes, whether you’re contemplating launching your first podcast, or have a whole stable and want to know how to take your strategy to the next level. 

Here at Media Voices we're constantly bouncing between projects, from our reports to the podcast to the Summit production. We know that you understand what that's like - so if you feel like kicking us a few quid to keep us in coffee and tea, please do!