Media News: unionization, dailies who print three times a week, and the departure of Corasaniti

It’s worth keeping an eye on media happenings across the country since it could be a harbinger of what’s to come in New Jersey.

* The Miami Herald editorial staff is moving toward forming a union after the newspaper went through another round of layoffs and staff reductions.  Union cards were signed this week, but the process won’t happen overnight.

From the Miami New Times: “In a newsroom-wide email, Miami Herald Publisher and Executive Editor Mindy Marqués González accused her own employees of spreading unnamed falsehoods and said she will not voluntarily recognize the union.”

Reporters rebelled earlier this year after discovering that CEO received a $1 million bonus just as he was negotiating the latest round of buyouts and layoffs.

* The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is now publishing their print edition three times a week.  The newspaper stopped printing newspapers on Tuesdays and Saturdays last year, and this week also cut print on Mondays and Wednesdays.

* A group of Gannett shareholders filed a complaint in federal court this week challenging the $1.4 million acquisition by GateHouse Media.

* The New York Times has promoted their talented Jersey guy, Nick Corasaniti, to the national political desk to cover the 2020 campaign.  Short term, that helps both the flourishing New York Times and the struggling New Jersey dailies, since it adds a sharp reporter to the national scene while taking a strong local reporter off the New Jersey beat.

In a bygone era, the Times had reporters who spent their careers in New Jersey – like Joseph F. Sullivan, George Cable Wright, and Mickey Carroll.  Corasaniti is following the David Model, where the Times let impactful journalists like David Halbfinger, David Kocieniewski and David Chen cut their teeth covering New Jersey politics and then move them up the journalism ladder.

It’s not immediately clear who will replace Corasaniti as the New Jersey reporter – or if the New York Times will send anyone to the other side of the Hudson.  The Times one had a huge footprint in New Jersey, but they have closed their Trenton bureau and long ago shut down the New Jersey section in their Sunday print edition.

Something to watch: considering the Times’ growth despite recent trends, will one of the young reporters from a New Jersey daily newspaper look to make to a move to the New York Times?

The Miami Herald is owned by the McClatchy newspaper chain and the Post-Gazette is owned by Block Communications.  Neither company owns any media properties in New Jersey.  Block owned the Star-Ledger from 1832 to 1939.