Hearst still hopes to bury union deal at mags
T HEfight pitting Hearst Magazines President Troy Young against the editorial union is getting nastier, with the Writers Guild of America, East now accusing the company of illegal surveillance and pressuring employees to withdraw their union authorization cards.
According to a complaint filed by the union in late December with the National Labor Relations Board, Hearst “unlawfully engaged in surveillance of employees’ union activities.” The union also claims the company “solicited, encouraged and/or provided assistance to employees to withdraw union authorization cards.”
In November, the Writers Guild said the “vast majority” of 500 editorial employees on magazines ranging from Esquire to Cosmopolitan had signed cards stating they wanted union representation.
Hearst has fought back, maintaining that up to 200 of the people who signed union authorization cards are supervisors who should be barred from joining a union.
“The surveillance claim is baseless — there is no surveillance,” said Young. The New York office of the NLRB said the vote to formally unionize can be held even while the supervisory issue is unresolved.
The company is appealing that ruling to the NLRB’s national board.
“A fair election process means determining who’s eligible to vote before an election, not after,” said Young, who also is pushing to have the union split into six different bargaining units. The union wants a single, unified bargaining unit for a stronger bargaining position.
Seeking its Fortune
Fortune is going to go behind a paywall next month as part of a sweeping redesign of the magazine and Web site.
The overhaul will also see the print magazine cut back to 10 times a year — and drop photos of business leaders from the cover, replaced by artistic concept covers.
The move comes just over a year after Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon finalized a $150 million deal to buy the title from Meredith in December 2018.
“We’re making money, but with our owners’ permission, we’re investing it back into the product,” said Alan Murray, the CEO and president of Fortune. He said the magazine, founded in 1929 by Henry Luce, used artistic covers for the first 30 to 40 years of its existence.
Starting in April, the US cover price, currently $6.99, will be raised to $9.99 for regular issues and $12.99 for double issues.
The number of issues will be cut by two from its current 12-times-ayear schedule, but Murray said the print version will be on a heavier weight paper and will be offered as part of digital packages. “We want to focus on the people who value us most,” he said.
Sometime next month — the exact date is not yet nailed down — Fortune.com will introduce a paywall with three tiers of subscription pricing. Digital-access-only will be priced at an annual rate of $49 a year, or $5 a month.
The second tier, known as Access Plus, will cost $99 for a full year, or $11 a month, and will include a subscription to the print magazine.
The top tier, Premium, will cost $199 a year, or $22 a month, and will include the print magazine plus access to videos featuring business leaders who participated in Fortune conferences, including the Fortune Global Forum, Most Powerful Women Summit, and the Brainstorm Tech conference.
The total workforce is composed of 206 people, with 85 devoted to editorial, including 70 in the US, 11 working on the Chinese-language edition produced in Hong Kong and four based in Europe. After years of cutbacks, Murray said, d, editorial added 13 staffers in 2019.
Today, Fortune does just under $100 million a year, with about 40 percent derived from its conference and exhibition businesses.
Print, once the engine that drove the brand, is bringing in just over 30 percent of the revenue, with digital accounting for about 20 percent.
Murray said that after years of declining revenue, Fortune has “stabilized.”
He added, “We’re not declining.
Once we’re done with the redesign, we’ll be skyrocketing.”
Teaming up
The Teamsters have withdrawn their unfair labor practice claim against Hudson News Distributors and apparently resolved their dispute with the company run by James Cohen. Teamsters Local 707 in August ratified the Hudson News deal, which contained no pay hike and a freeze on severance payments at the level of the contract that expired at the end of 2018. Cohen tells Media Ink there was “a bit of miscommunications on some final mundane terms, but we simply now are signing/implementing what we all agreed upon previously.” Calls and e-mails to Teamster officials were not returned. Cohen, of course, is the man who nearly nine months ago said he was going to buy the National Enquirer from American Media Inc. for $100 million, but the deal has yet to be finalized. Cohen gave no specifics, but said of that deal via e-mail, “I would hope/think that contract would be signed quickly.”