DNAinfo might be DOA if staffers at the hyperlocal news site vote to unionize, according to an internal email leaked to the Daily News Tuesday.
Executive Vice President and COO Dan Swartz told the site’s reporters and editors in an email that a unionized workforce might be the “final straw” for the money-losing news organization, which just underwent a wave of layoffs.
“Would a union be the final straw that caused the business to be closed? I don’t know,” Swartz wrote in the email.
“DNAinfo has lost money since it began operation … It’s never been profitable. … DNAInfo has been supported by a single investor, Joe Ricketts,” the email said.
Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, one of the largest online discount brokerages in the world, also started a DNA site in Chicago.
Staffers there — who are also trying to unionize — were called in for a group meeting recently and warned of the perils of joining a labor organization, sources said.
The email from New York’s leadership came after management heard rumors that some staffers signed union cards with the Writers Guild of America, East, according to multiple sources.
The staff started the talks after the layoffs began, and is close to unanimous in its support for a union, sources said.
Swartz’s email said it was important that Ricketts spent “literally tens of millions of dollars of his own money” to keep the site alive.
“At some point, the business needs to be profitable or the investor calls it quits,” the email said.
“With that in mind, I believe we need to be focusing right now on working together to find the path to profitability for DNAinfo. Think about that, and think about whether bringing a union in would move us in the right direction,” Swartz said.
Billionaire Ricketts owns the Chicago Cubs and has donated to Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Mitt Romney.
In the past two months, DNAInfo’s New York shop laid off about 10 employees, including the site’s managing editor Mike Ventura. The cuts started around the time DNAinfo acquired Gothamist, an opinionated New York news blog, with plans to merge the sites.
Managers from Gothamist gathered the DNAinfo staff last week for an anti-union meeting, where they were dissuaded from their efforts, the source said. The Gothamist staff also plans to join the union effort.
The National Labor Relations Board prohibits employers from threatening or coercing workers who want to unionize, and also says employees cannot be punished for doing so.
Swartz and a spokesman for Ricketts did not immediately return messages from The News.
The past few years have seen a surge of digital newsrooms unionizing, including Vice, the Huffington Post, Law360 and the former Gawker Media sites, which are now owned by Univision.
