• by Ray Schultz , March 5, 2025

Walkouts were averted at six Gannett titles in New Jersey and New York when employees and the firm agreed on “ life-changing” increases in pay and job protections. 

A vote on ratification was scheduled for Thursday.  

The publications include the Asbury Park Press, Courier News, Home News Tribune, the Journal News, Poughkeepsie Journal and Times Herald-Record. 

The Jersey staffers were represented by the APP-MCJ Guild and the New York State employees by the Hudson Valley NewsGuild. 

If ratified, the contract provides the following:

• Salary floors will be lifted for both new and current employees with raises as high as $23,000. 
• Seniority and severance and inclusion on a recall list if there is a layoff. 

Guardrails around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). These include, a contractual guarantee that AI is “supplementary to local news reporting and not a replacement for it,” along with bargaining when new technology is introduced. 

“Our Gannett journalists have been at the forefront of the fight to protect local news.,” says Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York. “Winning life-changing contracts with fair wages and good job protections ensures they will be able to continue to report local news in their communities.”