Union Readies Site Shockingly Not Hosted On Blogger

When I heard that the Daily News and Inquirer were readying their own website in case of a strike, I immediately went out and registered inquireranddailynews.blogspot.com in anticipation of being able to sell it back to the Newspaper Guild for a buck or two.

Shockingly, though, the Guild went out and purchased their own domain and got some free newspaper software and set up PhilaPapers.com. According to a release from the Guild — Byko is churning them out like a machine! — some content will immediately be posted online, with news to follow throughout the duration of the strike. Tom Ferrick is coordinating this whole shebang. (There’s precedent for this sort of thing. Salon.com was founded due in part to a San Francisco Examiner strike in 1995.)

Once again, midnight Thursday is the deadline. Let’s hope they can get this settled. Although, either way, it appears we’re going to get our weekly Faye Flam fix.

Full guild release after the jump.

GUILD READIES ONLINE PHILAPAPERS.COM

In the event a strike is forced upon The Newspaper Guild, the union journalists of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News will provide the Delaware Valley with a source for news and information assembled by professionals.

The site exists already at www.philapapers.com. There is no content at present because Guild members are covering the news for their employer. In the event of a strike — which Guild negotiators are hoping to avoid — news, features, sports, entertainment, finance, columnists and more will be posted on PhilaPapers.com.

Material posted there will be reported and written by the local, professional, experienced union staffers of the Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Should a strike be called, PhilaPaper.com Coordinator Tom Ferrick expects some material to be posed immediately, with a complete rollout of all material taking several days. PhilaPapers.com will be updated throughout the day.

Philly Newspaper Guild Planning Online Strike Paper [E&P]