It’s a dark day over at The Commercial Appeal. Guild members are wearing black today to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the newspaper not giving its employees raises.
Employees say it’s been a bleak five years, especially in contrast to what editor Chris Peck calls “monetizing” the content. In October, the paper began finding sponsors for certain columns and stories. More recently, a gray Gateway Tire ad has found a home on the agate type stats page in the sports section.
“We wanted to find a way to show our solidarity as a group of employees and this is a very visual way to do that,” said Dakarai Aarons, one of the guild’s three vice presidents. “We are in mourning.”
Aarons added that, as health care costs have increased for employees but salaries haven’t, employees are actually losing money by staying at the CA.
Read more about the CA‘s monetizing, here.
More about the guild’s recent struggles here.
