Labor & Employment Law

Former Baltimore Sun Employees Find Voice Online

By James Parks

John McIntyre bids farewell to his colleagues in the Baltimore Sun newsroom.

A new website gives voice to the more than 60 Baltimore Sun writers and staff who were laid off in massive cuts during the spring of 2009. At Telling Our Stories: The Days of the Baltimore Sun, launched May 12, the former Sun employees share their stories and bittersweet memories.

The site grew out of a project conceived and funded by the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) Foundation fellowship program in collaboration with the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild (WBNG).

The fellowship program gives the laid-off Sun workers an opportunity to tell a story arising out of their personal experiences during their time at newspaper. Participating fellows include reporters, editors, critics, copy editors, photographers, designers, advertising salespeople and market researchers. In addition to the essays, poems, photos and videos featured on the site, former Sun employees also designed the website and edited the submissions.

Here’s Steve Auerweck, a 24-year Sun employee who first worked as an editor on the business desk and then as a manager of newsroom technology:

I think the important thing about this site is that it puts real people behind the numbers. It will let the readers of Baltimore know what they’ve lost.

The Sun fellows were encouraged to express their feelings in their own way, resulting in a site that’s an often moving compilation of personal memoirs, says former WBNG President William Salganik..

Submissions include copydesk chief John McIntyre’s essay on how it feels to have to look for a job after more than 30 years in journalism and graphic artist Fe Fung Hung’s artistic meditation on the perfect vacation. There’s Ebony Page-Harvey’s poem about her last day as a classified ad salesperson and photojournalist Elizabeth Malby’s video profile of a longtime Sun photographer.

WGAE Foundation President Tom Fontana says:

The Baltimore Sun fellowship embodies the Foundation’s mission-to perpetuate the art and craft of storytelling. By publishing their personal stories on this site, the fellows’ voices can now be heard loud and clear by people not only in Baltimore but around the world. As writers, we understand the power of words. We’re happy this fellowship program and new website are helping these fellows harness the power of words to get through this difficult time.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 15, 2010 (boomark / email).