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Gannett’s Rochester journalists objected in 2024 after a draft contract changed from limiting AI to supplementary use to allowing AI to generate news content without that safeguard. The April 24 wording was a proposal, not the final contract: after a 19-day strike, journalists ratified a June agreement that again said AI would be supplementary to local reporting and not replace it. The wording of any successor agreement after that two-year contract is not established here.
How the AI clause changed between drafts
In a May 14, 2024, report, Digiday described two versions of proposed contract language at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. The April 11 draft said AI “may be used to generate news content that is supplementary to local news reporting and is not a replacement for it.” A draft sent April 24 replaced that sentence with: “Artificial intelligence (AI) may be used to generate news content.”
| Draft | Scope of AI-generated content | Express protection against replacement | AI policy changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 11, 2024 | AI-generated news content was described as supplementary to local reporting. | Yes; the draft said AI would not replace local reporting. | Digiday did not report the “from time to time” change in this version. |
| April 24, 2024 | AI “may be used to generate news content,” with no supplementary-use limit in that sentence. | No; the April 11 restriction had been removed. | The draft also said Gannett’s AI policy could be modified “from time to time.” |
The central dispute was the difference between a bounded, supplementary role and permission to generate news content without that explicit limit. The April 24 language was part of bargaining; it is not evidence that Gannett had already deployed unrestricted AI-generated local reporting under a contract provision.
Why Rochester journalists objected
The union’s concern was job security and the absence of written limits on AI’s role. Digiday reported that the Rochester unit had been bargaining for about two years and that members said they had not received explicit notice of the wording change. Justin Murphy, an education reporter and Newspaper Guild of Rochester member, told Digiday, “It was shocking and frustrating and disappointing.” He said the union wanted the company’s possible AI use acknowledged in writing, while making clear it could not replace journalists’ work or journalists themselves.
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Digiday reported 25 newsroom members in its May account. In its June announcement, the NewsGuild-CWA described 24 journalists in the Rochester and Canandaigua bargaining group. Those are separately dated counts from different sources and should not be treated as a reconciled headcount. Digiday also reported that the NewsGuild represented more than 1,000 Gannett employees across more than 50 bargaining units.
What the NLRB filing does—and does not—establish
The union filed an unfair-labor-practice charge on April 24, 2024, alleging regressive proposals during bargaining. The NLRB case page lists a charge filed April 25 against Gannett’s Democrat & Chronicle operation. The filing records an allegation and a procedural event; it is not, by itself, a finding that Gannett violated labor law.
What the ratified June 2024 agreement said
The dispute’s near-term outcome was different from the April 24 draft. On June 17, 2024, the NewsGuild-CWA announced that journalists at the Democrat & Chronicle and Canandaigua Daily Messenger had unanimously ratified a two-year collective bargaining agreement after a 19-day strike. The union and WXXI News reported the agreement’s AI commitment as supplementary to local news reporting and not a replacement for it. That was a negotiated term in the 2024 agreement, restoring the safeguard absent from the April 24 draft.
What is—and is not—known about the current contract
The 2024 agreement had a two-year term. The sources cited here do not establish the wording of a successor contract after that term, so the June 2024 protection should not be assumed to remain in force in September 2026. The documented result is narrower: Rochester-area journalists won the supplementary/not-a-replacement commitment in the agreement ratified in June 2024.
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Why unions focused on AI language
A November 2023 NewsGuild-CWA survey found that 90% of responding members said unions had a strong responsibility to enforce ethical and responsible AI use. That is a result from the union’s respondents, not a representative estimate of all journalists or the public. It helps explain why contract wording mattered to union members: a written limit could address how AI relates to reporting work, rather than leaving the issue solely to an employer policy that the draft said could change over time.
Sources: Digiday, May 14, 2024; The NewsGuild-CWA, June 17, 2024; WXXI News, June 17, 2024; National Labor Relations Board case 03-CA-340792; and NewsGuild-CWA’s November 2023 AI member survey.
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