The organization's founders were
Joseph Cookman an editor of the
New York Post, Allen Raymond of the
New York Herald Tribune and
Heywood Broun of the
New York World-Telegram. The inaugural chapter was based in Cleveland, Ohio, and
Carl Randau was its first director from 1934 to 1940. It was originally called the
American Newspaper Guild, but it simplified its name to
Newspaper Guild in the 1970s to reflect the fact that it also operated outside the United States. It had expanded into Canada in the 1950s. It became affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor in 1936, then left to go into the new
Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1937, when it expanded its membership to non-editorial departments. It merged with the
Communications Workers of America in 1995. The Guild has more than 25,000 members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Its membership has expanded from just journalists to many other employees of newspapers and
news agencies, such as clerks who take classified ads and computer support workers. It also represents workers in a number of other industries. In 2021, the union changed its logo to reincorporate an eye motif from the original logos back to the union's founding and to modernize the look of the union for the future. In 2024, media outlets reported that a high-profile organizer for the NewsGuild, Nastaran Mohit, wrote several posts on X that some NewsGuild members deemed anti-Semitic and violent. Mohit's comments included "Zionist butchers know how to kill" and referred to Zionists as "depraved monsters who will meet their fate one day." The Guild hired a law firm to investigate the actions as well as those of other Guild staffers who wrote criticism of the work of the journalists they represent in labor negotiations. “It’s clear that some of the people we pay to represent us hate us because … they not only attack the New York Times but journalism itself,” one longtime staffer told The New York Post.
Broun's influence Heywood Broun was one of the most respected journalists and most popular, highly paid contributors. On August 7, 1933, Broun noted, in his
New York World-Telegram column, the current economic gains of the newspaper's business. His understanding of
economics distinguished him among is fellow journalists, and brought him into dialogue with newspaper management. The advocated for a
trade union of journalists. Broun wrote, "the fact that newspaper editors and owners are genial folk should hardly stand in the way of organization of a newspaper writers' union. There should be [always] one." His column has influenced journalists from many states to rise up in opposition to the newspapers' authorities and organize by publishers to show the importance of the newspaper union and expanding the foundation. Heywood launched the Guild during the Depression. During the earlier times of the Guild, there were complaints from the "rapacious" publishers about federal regulation of minimum wages and maximum hours for newsroom workers set by the
National Recovery Act. The publishers wanted a
tax deferral on constitutional grounds since their First Amendment rights would be compromised if the government enforced a forty-hour work week, which was considered restrictive. Newsmen and newswomen rallied around Broun's call for labor union. The Newspaper Guild, representing journalists and other written media workers since 1933, became one of the most continuous and effective media organizations in the United States.
Status in 1942 In 1942 Henning Heldt, as a
Nieman Fellow, contributed an article on the Newspaper Guild to a collection published by Nieman Fellows that year at
Harvard University. In 1934 a convention of the Guild was held in St. Paul, Minnesota. In an effort to elevate the standards of journalism, it was resolved: Heldt described the radical past, arrival, and conservative turn of the Guild in 1942: Positing a "legend of newsmen", Heldt lamented that the Guild finished off the legend: In 1970s, the union expanded its scope outside of the United States. and adopted the name of Newspaper Guild or TNG. It also collaborated with another union called the
Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 1977. The combined union had hundreds of thousands of workers in telecommunications and media, and later adopted a new name, The Newspaper Guild-CWA. == Campaigns ==