GUILD DISCUSSING ON-LINE INVOLVEMENT WITH THE NEWS

IT'S STILL THE NEWS

By JAY REY

Control over their online editions continues to be a game of tug of war between newspapers and guilds across the country.

But local union representatives are encouraged by informal discussions with News management about the Guild becoming more involved in producing the paper's online product, at www.buffalonews.com.

Guild leaders met with Publisher Stanford Lipsey and other members of management in late November to discuss The News' online edition. Guild representatives stressed that journalists need to be involved in the web site.

Lipsey said he's interested in further discussions and the two sides expect to meet again soon, said James Heaney, chairman of the guild's online committee.

"It was a good first meeting. Both sides better understand where the other is coming from, and I see the potential for progress," Heaney said.

Heaney said that, based on research done both at the national and local levels, the Guild has a very strong contractual case to claim jurisdiction over the News' on-line news product.

"We're confident we can prevail through the grievance-arbitration process, if need be, but we think it's in every one's best interest to first attempt to resolve this through a less contentious approach," Heaney said.

"Both the company and its employees benefit from a quality on-line newspaper, which we feel can only be accomplished with the involvement of journalists," he said.

Locals at other newspapers have had to tackle the issue at the bargaining table. Some have had success, others haven't.

"We knew that was going to be an expanding part of the paper," said Mike Bucsko, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. "They didn't want to give it up."

"It's been a fight because this is changing all the time," he said.

Here's how the online issue has played out at a few other newspapers:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, www.post-gazette.com

The Post-Gazette's online edition was a key issue during the union's 1998 negotiations.

"What we have jurisdiction over is any editorial content that's on the web site," Bucsko said. "Our argument was it's not any different than what our people are doing for the newspaper version."

Three new positions were added to handle the online edition, Bucsko said. Now, a total of four people - including a copy editor and two news editors - handle the web site.

The process is streamlined by having the reporters flag their stories and send them to a file where it's retrieved by the online staff, he said.

Long Beach Press-Telegram, www.ptconnect.com

Previously, three to five newsroom copy editors and clerks handled the online edition of the Press-Telegram, which has a Sunday circulation of about 119,000.

But that responsibility was one of the newsroom casualties when Media News Group bought the paper in 1998, said Gary North, past president of the Southern California Media Guild.

The corporation took over online edition and shipped the duties to an outfit in Denver. Although there haven't been any discussions, the union, of course, would like to like to have those duties back, North said.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com

The Milwaukee Newspaper Guild represents 11 employees of the paper's online staff, all of whom fall into the journalist or clerk classification, said David Kirner, president of the Local 51.

But the union realizes it's still in the early stages of this online venture, so it agreed not to file any grievances relating to the online newspaper through 2002, Kirner said.

In the meantime, the Guild is in constant discussion with the company over who is covered by the language of the contract, he said.

Cleveland Plain Dealer, www.plaindealer.com

The online paper - The Plain Dealer -- is mixed in with a glitzy, all-encompassing Cleveland community web site handled by a separate corporation, said Guild President Dick Peery.

"We have no jurisdiction," Peery said. "We couldn't find a way to get through."