Gawker Workers Create First Digital Media Union

The Writers Guild of America East, which represents the editorial staff of Gawker Media, announced they have successfully bargained the first union contract at a digital media company, a three-year deal that establishes pay minimums and a three percent across-the-board annual raise. Gawker’s sites include Jezebel, Deadspin, and Gizmodo, among others. Minimum pay for a Gawker editorial staff member is set at $50,000 for full-time workers, and $90,000 for deputy editors and the editors-in-chief of some of Gawker’s smaller websites. The contract also touches on content, laying out parameters for editorial independence: “Any decision on editorial content has to be made by the editorial side – not by business decisions or advertisers.” Gawker is setting the bar for digital media companies – Salon, Vice Media, Huffington Post and Guardian U.S. have all unionized, but have yet to bargain contracts.