Labor negotiations have stalled between the publisher and staffers at three of its subsidiary brands.

A group of roughly 100 employees at the New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Ars Technica are set to strike soon if they can’t reach an agreement with parent company Condé Nast. Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast reports that the staffers “voted this week overwhelmingly in favor of moving ahead with a strike if Condé continues to rebuff demands about key issues, primarily around proposed wage increases.”

The conflict has been simmering for quite a while, says Tani: “The trio of Condé publications threatening to strike have each separately been involved in years-long bargaining negotiations with the parent company’s management to establish first-time union contracts ... but the glacial pace of negotiations has frustrated staff, who believe the company has been in no hurry to establish contracts with the unions.” Read more about the situation here.

Also Notable

Journalists Covering Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

The recent shootings in Atlanta have brought issues of anti-Asian racism to the forefront for many journalists. On March 17, the Asian American Journalists Association issues its guidance for journalists covering this story and others like it. Among other things, the association cautions outlets not to cover Asian women in hypersexual terms, to provide greater context around the recent spikes in violence against Asian Americans, and to look to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as experts and sources for research. Read the complete set of guidelines here.

Reporting Responsibly on Covid Vaccine Efficacy

Last week, Al Tompkins of Poynter.org issued a sharp warning to journalists covering the Covid vaccine in Poynter’s daily “Covering Covid-19” column. Citing recent stories he’s seen amplifying the threat of infection after vaccination, he says: “It is not impossible for this to happen, but it is far more likely that people who test positive for Covid-19 after they were vaccinated were infected before they got the shot and didn’t know it.” He mentions some news pieces he’s seen in which even public health officials have gotten it wrong, creating a misleading picture of the real threat of infection after vaccination. Ultimately, he says, “there are rare -- very rare -- cases that may actually be breakthrough cases in which a person is vaccinated and gets infected ... but [they] are also not a reason to avoid getting the vaccine.” Read more here.

Brand Magazines Still in Print

Recent years have seen many brands launching print magazines to boost engagement with their audiences. But how many of those magazines are still in print? Kathryn Hopkins of WWD.com explores the question in a recent piece. “It turns out to be a mixed picture,” she reports. “Of the 10 brands that WWD reached out to, half (Airbnb, Away, Bumble, Goop and Net-a-porter) have ceased print production for now, while the other five (Goat, Maapilim, Ssense, Tracy Anderson and Uniqlo) are still going strong, finding that having a print magazine is a positive and useful extension of their brand.” She takes a closer look at each of the 10 aforementioned titles to see where they’ve landed and how they got there. Read the full piece .

Meredith/Amex Shutters Two Magazines

Elsewhere in brand magazine publishing, two copublished titles from Meredith/Amex shuttered this month: Departures and Centurion magazines. Keith J. Kelly of the New York Post reports that “American Express ... will now take it over and run the mags as digital-only brands.” Kelly reports that group publisher Giulio Capua will stay at Meredith, but most of the magazines’ staffers were let go late last week. Read more here.

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