'Star-Tribune' Reporters Withholding Bylines

By: Five reporters at the Star Tribune are withholding bylines in a dispute over whether nonunion journalists can extensively edit stories.

The dispute stems from the editing of a series the paper launched Sunday on the state's ethanol industry. The names of reporters Tony Kennedy, Dan Browning and Chris Serres did not appear above their stories, though they were included in a box inside the newspaper.

Serres said the reporters were protesting the newspaper's decision to assign a nonunion journalist to edit it. The union says its contract permits nonunion editors to make only minor changes to stories.

Two other union leaders, Pam Miller and Pat Doyle, have joined the protest and said they would not allow their bylines to appear on days when the ethanol series is printed.

Serres, a vice chair of the Star Tribune unit of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union, said the guild considered it a "serious violation" of the union contract.

"The wider significance is that for as long as this newspaper has been around the hands-on editing has been done by Guild members," he said. "If this is allowed to happen and non-Guild members can do Guild work, then we could lose a large part of our membership."

Serres also contended the newspaper violated the Guild contract a second time when it included the reporters' names in the box describing the project.

Scott Gillespie, the newspaper's managing editor, said he believes management did not violate its contract by running the reporters' names in the box. He also said union editors were involved in the project as well as a nonunion editor.

"What we're trying to do is produce the best possible stories for readers," Gillespie said. "We believe there's a long tradition of the investigative editor being actively involved in shaping our most momentous work."

The Star Tribune is owned by Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy Co. The newspaper has a circulation of about 380,000 daily and 666,700 on Sundays.