Evansville NewsGuild

09/01/2025

Happy Labor Day to all. We're proud to celebrate our first as a union.

06/29/2025

The employees at Eyewitness News held a rally today to support their difficult effort to bargain for fair pay and treatment. We stand behind them.

See the photos: Union workers with Eyewitness News gather support while calling for Nexstar Media Group to bargain a contract during rally in Henderson, Kentucky. bit.ly/447BjsU

05/01/2025

After more than two years of organizing, the Evansville News Guild has officially signed a union contract. Courier & Press reporters and our photographer will receive pay raises and extra protections, giving us what we need to better cover the community we live in.

Nine years ago, the Courier & Press editorial staff had a little more than 30 employees eligible for union representation. Today that's down to six: four news reporters, one sports reporter, and a lone photographer. We can't cover everything we used to. Still, the six of us do our best to chronicle a city of more than 100,000 people -- and a metro area of over 300,000.

We want to thank everyone in the News Guild and Communications Workers of America, past and present, who made this possible. And we really appreciate the support from other local unions who cheered us along the way.

Most importantly, though, are the community members who have offered kind words. We love covering this city and the entire Evansville area. We hope this contract will help us do that to the best of our ability for years to come.

01/10/2025

Seems like we’re always shouting out Macabe Brown around these parts. The whole C&P team has been covering these dueling winter storms through power outages and awful roads, but MaCabe has been braving the conditions more than anyone. He and everyone else are eyeing a contract from Gannett that will give us better pay and time off to recuperate after grueling stretches like this.

Check out some of his work, with a big assist from Houston Harwood.

A winter storm brought snow and ice to the Tri-State on Sunday, Jan. 5.

12/27/2024

The pictures of the year gallery is here for 2024. It’s filled with incredible work from Courier & Press photojournalist MaCabe Brown and from the one intern we were allowed this year, Kate Cassady.

In previous years, there would have been more than two names filling the bylines of this gallery. But more than any other position, Gannett has shown complete disregard for the commitment and storytelling photojournalists have done, and still do, in Evansville.

We’re incredibly lucky to have MaCabe. We’re hoping in the next few months we’ll have our very first contract as a union, and it will include protections and pay long overdue for the photo staff and all of our members ✊

2024 Pictures of the Year – Courier & Press photography staff's favorite images of 2024

10/09/2024

We've seen some questions from the public recently on why we haven't covered certain topics. We understand the frustration -- we wish we could be everywhere, too. But because of extreme staffing shortages, we just can't.
In 2022, we had:
-- 12 news or features reporters
-- Four sports reporters
-- Two photographers
Compare that to now:
-- Four news reporters
-- Two sports reporters
-- One photographer
In all, we've lost 11 newsroom positions in the last two years. Our last new hire came more than a year ago, and he's since left with no prospect of a replacement on the horizon.
We're fighting for a contract to protect the employees we have left, and hopefully, one day, empower Gannett to bring reinforcements so we can do our jobs the way we want to. We hope you'll support us.

09/02/2024

Happy Labor Day to all. It’s our first as a guild. We’re in the midst of trying to schedule bargaining dates with Gannett. Hopefully by this time next year, we’ll have a contract that guarantees fair pay and a better workplace for our members.

07/29/2024

We want to congratulate the news and production departments and the creative service employees at WEHT / WTVW (Eyewitness News) on announcing their intent to unionize. Like us at the Courier & Press, TV journalists in Evansville deserve fair pay and a healthy work-life balance. Here's hoping this is a step in that direction.

06/20/2024

We sent a letter to management today asking the company to cease using an artificial intelligence program that generates "key points" to an article if used. The text is below:

It has come to the attention of The Evansville NewsGuild that Gannett has greenlit the testing of artificial intelligence, or “AI Assistance” as it’s called in Presto, to generate story highlights that are being published on individual reporters’ stories.

As a bargaining unit, we stand in solidarity in calling for the company to cease the use of this technology in the Courier & Press newsroom until we have reached an agreement on artificial intelligence. That agreement may be reached in our collective bargaining agreement or in a separate memorandum of understanding.

Regardless, we must bargain over this matter.

Protections to prevent AI from threatening our jobs or our work products are deeply important to our members. Unit members have expressed concerns about how this AI program operates and how it’s being rolled out in our newsrooms.

Furthermore, by participating in this program, the company is allowing the use of reporters’ stories to train an algorithm. This concerns our bargaining unit leadership greatly. We’re also concerned that the disclaimer listed at the bottom of any article that utilizes AI Assistance will confuse readers and make them think the article itself was written by AI instead of by an actual journalist.

We welcome proposals or discussion regarding this matter. Until we reach an agreement, please refrain from using AI Assistance to generate story highlights on any story produced by a bargaining unit member.

Thank you,

The Evansville NewsGuild

05/27/2024

Our photographer MaCabe Brown has been working tirelessly to cover high school graduations in Evansville -- and he does it alone. Gannett has repeatedly refused to hire a second photographer, and it even balks on paying our hourly workers overtime.

Despite this, he does an exceptional job every time. Below is just one example.

The Harrison High School class of 2024 receives their diplomas Friday, May 24, 2024.

05/02/2024

"Gannett has consistently failed to invest in the workers who drive its success – the journalists who work long hours to deliver quality journalism to their communities. Instead, it has steered its gains to the top, while underpaying journalists and slashing staff."

NewsGuild-CWA Statement on Gannett Q1 Results Posted on May 2, 2024May 2, 2024Author Rebekah EntralgoCategories Featured, News Media Contact: Asya Pikovsky, [email protected], 207-522-2442 NEW YORK – In response to the release of Gannett’s Quarter 1 earnings calls today, The NewsGuild-CWA ...