Editorial workers at NYC's largest local newspaper chain — amNY, Brooklyn Paper, Bronx Times, and 30-plus outlets — will vote on NewsGuild representation July 24 after CEO Josh Schneps denied voluntary recognition. Starting pay runs as low as $37,000.

The 27 eligible editorial workers at Schneps Media — the family-owned chain that publishes amNewYork, Brooklyn Paper, the Bronx Times, and more than 30 other New York outlets — will vote on NewsGuild representation in an NLRB election set for July 24, after CEO Josh Schneps denied the union voluntary recognition last month.

Starting salaries at the company run as low as $37,000. Emily Swanson, a reporter at the Bronx Times, told The Groove she lobbied for months before her pay reached $44,000 a year — and then wrote $850 a month in health insurance checks on top of that. "This job has permanently set me back financially," she said. Workers at the Bronx Times have since left for outlets in Philadelphia and Rye, she said, not because they disliked the work.

The wage floor is the organizing campaign's floor, but it isn't the only concern. Kirstyn Brendlen, digital editor of The Brooklyn Paper, described coworkers who left in recent years without other jobs lined up — unable to afford the city, they moved in with family. "People are leaving," Brendlen told The Groove. "Then, at Brooklyn Paper, we're losing people who are well versed in what's going on."

That churn is the second grievance, folded into the first: when reporters can't stay, the beat knowledge walks out with them. Ethan Stark-Miller, a reporter at Schneps-owned amNewYork, put it plainly: "There's been a ton of turnover at Schneps. There's not much in the way of institutional knowledge because of that."

Workers also cited concerns about editorial independence. Swanson said reporters are sometimes steered toward assignments that serve advertisers or the company's own interests. The company's record includes producing what critics called a "pseudo-newspaper" for former Mayor Eric Adams. Schneps is also a chain of advertiser-heavy specialty magazines and live events alongside its news outlets.

Josh Schneps, the CEO and co-publisher, declined to engage publicly on the union drive. In a statement, he said he would "save my remarks at the moment for our employees who are considering whether a union will advance their careers or place further economic stress on media outlets." Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a statement of support for the workers.

Schneps Media grew from a Bayside, Queens, operation — free supermarket weeklies in the living-room era — into a chain of more than three dozen outlets after Josh Schneps went on a buying spree roughly a decade ago, picking up the Long Island Press, Brownstoner, amNY, and Metro, among others. The editorial workforce that now wants a contract is the workforce that inherited the infrastructure of that expansion. The July 24 vote will say whether they get to negotiate the terms of what they build next.