PARIS, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Staff at French business newspaper La Tribune have decided to suspend a strike begun in protest over a deal by owner LVMH (LVMH.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) to sell the paper, trade unions said on Monday. “Staff at La Tribune, who have been on strike since November 29, have just voted (72 [...]

Guardian journalists today voted in favour of an “enabling deal” that offered backing for the company’s 24/7 integration plans. The National Union of Journalists’ Guardian chapel endorsed the deal by 211 votes to 27, with two abstentions. Today’s agreement gives staff a two-year, 4.8% pay rise effective from the current financial year, with an additional inflation-linked boost [...]

NEW YORK – The New York Times, feeling the squeeze affecting newspapers everywhere, said Wednesday it would eliminate about a dozen support staff jobs from its newsroom. Executive editor Bill Keller told Times employees in an e-mail message that the job cuts were the first to affect the paper’s newsroom “in recent memory,” but would not [...]

Athens – Greece was under a 24-hour news blackout as journalists launched work stoppages Tuesday as part of a wave of anti-government rallies against social security reforms. The strike, which is to also include a march in downtown Athens, is to disrupt newspaper production, radio and television news broadcasts and internet news sites across the country. Journalists [...]

Hamburg – Germany’s leading news magazine Der Spiegel said Thursday it was not renewing the contract of its long-time editor-in-chief, Stefan Aust. Aust, 61, will leave the magazine after 14 years at the end of December 2008, a spokesman for the publication said. “We believe Der Spiegel needs rejuvenating,” said Armin Mahler, head of the employees’ [...]

McLEAN, Va. — USA Today, the highest circulation newspaper in the country and the flagship of industry leader Gannett Co., announced plans today to eliminate about 45 newsroom jobs. The job losses reflect a cut of almost 9 percent to a current newsroom staff of about 500, USA Today spokeswoman Alexandra Nicholson said. They will be [...]

NEW YORK (AP) — As the Hollywood writers strike enters a second week, advertisers are worrying it could seriously disrupt the TV schedule — and the number of eyeballs viewing their ads — in coming months. So far, the strike has forced only late-night talk and comedy shows into reruns, since their material must be freshly [...]

From children’s programmes to sports broadcasts, the BBC swung an axe on at least 10 per cent of its workforce on Thursday in an effort to push through £1.7bn in savings over the next six years. Announcing his controversial “reprioritisation” plan, director-general Mark Thompson told staff that those who survived would be working for a smaller [...]

The BBC is poised to cut at least 12 per cent of its workforce, with the brunt of more than 2,000 redundancies falling on factual programming, senior staff have been told. The final tally of job losses, which will have to be approved by the BBC Trust, could approach 2,800, according to one person familiar with [...]

NEW YORK — After two decades of cutbacks in international bureaus, ABC News is bucking the trend by creating one-person operations that will dramatically boost its coverage in Africa, India and elsewhere. The small offices, staffed by a reporter-producer with the latest in hand-held digital technology, cost a fraction of what it takes to run a [...]

State-controlled Sri Lankan television station Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) has sent four of its journalists on compulsory leave after they submitted a letter stating that their professional rights had been disrespected and damaged. According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), SLRC Producers’ Union Chairman Kanchana Marasinghe, Organiser Herbert Kumara Alagiyawanna, Athula Peiris and Ravi Abewickrama [...]

Over one thousand members of the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) gathered in Sochi on the Black Sea with the support of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for a four-day festival of journalism, the biggest of its kind. IFJ President Jim Boumelha, addressing the official opening ceremony, paid tribute to the RUJ’s tradition of internationalism [...]

(IFJ/IFEX) – Representatives of member organisations of the South Asian Media Solidarity Network, at a meeting in Kathmandu on September 15, 2007 supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (foundation), unanimously adopted a new charter. The charter will be the basis for SAMSN’s transition from an open platform to a formally structured organisation with an agreed [...]

(IFJ/IFEX) – Today the European Federation of Journalists, the European group of the International Federation of Journalists, brought its full backing to over 400 journalists in Slovenia who signed a petition to denounce intolerable pressure in the newsrooms. “We are appalled that after months of protests and appeals by national and international media organisations the Slovenian [...]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), regional group of the International Federation of Journalists, today condemned the adoption by the Portuguese Parliament of a law that strips journalists of their right to protect their confidential sources and to be fairly paid for the use of their work. “We are flabbergasted by Portuguese lawmakers’ lack [...]