Watching their news organization’s daily drift to the right, increasing use of weird wire service copy and out-of-town TV station stories and the way their contract negotiations have stalled, Baltimore Sun staffers have lately taken to the streets to make their case against their new owner, David D. Smith.

Positioning themselves on a rain-soaked Baltimore sidewalk last night to pass out fliers calling Smith “a union buster,” nearly a dozen Guild members and supporters suddenly found themselves confronting the big boss himself.

Amy Davis was ready.

“We’ve had a contract for the past 12 years, but we haven’t had across-the-board raises,” the veteran Sun photographer and Guild member said to Smith.

(He was heading in to an event at Tagliata, one of the many upscale restaurants owned by Smith’s nephew, Atlas Restaurant Group president and CEO Alex Smith.)

“And why is that?” Smith shot back.

As Davis began to answer him, Smith cut her short.

“The point is, what have you been doing for the last 12 years?” he challenged.

“Well, we’ve been putting out a damn good paper, even though you haven’t been reading it,” Davis responded.

(Smith declared he hadn’t read the paper in 40 years at his first meeting with Sun staffers last January, shortly after the Trump-aligned executive chairman of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and businessman-columnist Armstrong Williams had purchased the 187-year-old newspaper.)

Asked whether he reads the publication he owns, Smith said he does now, observing “it’s getting better.”

“You should also know you’ve lost more than half your subscribers in the last three years,” Smith told her.

Davis, undeterred, responded with a question of her own.

“How many subscribers have we lost in the past year? Give me a ballpark number,” she countered.

“I run into a substantial number of people who are really disappointed with the direction of the paper,” she said. “They say, ‘Hey, if I want Fox 45, I can watch it for free. Why do I want to pay for that in the Sun?’”

(This was a reference to the local television station that is the flagship in the media mogul’s network of some 185 Sinclair stations in 86 markets across the country.)

Returning to the reason why her group was there, Davis started, “There’s one message I want to leave with you,” when Smith again cut her off.

“I have lots of union people working for me across the country. I have no problems with unions,” he told her. “I’ve been negotiating with them for 50 years.”

Davis had a comeback.

“When Fox 45 started talking about a union, you said you would shut down the station – that’s what an employee told me,” she retorted.

“Well, you shouldn’t believe it,” Smith answered.

Ensconced in the Atlas Enclave

It went on like that for nearly 15 minutes.

Watching agog at the exchange were the others Davis came with, including Sun reporters Hannah Gaskill, Christine Condon and Dan Belson.

The group was there to leaflet outside Tagliata, one of a cluster of four restaurants, collectively known as “Atlas Quarter,” in the Little Italy neighborhood on the edge of Harbor East.

Diners at Tagliata can opt for lower-key menu items like the Sweet Potato Ravioli ($44 for the large portion) or go all-out-carnivore with the 42-ounce Porterhouse ($160).

Even by day, the Sun staff has become a part of this upscale Baltimore enclave.

In October, Smith moved the newspaper office from St. Paul Street downtown to the Bagby Building at 1010 Fleet Street.

“You enter our building from the Atlas Courtyard,” a staffer told The Brew. “Atlas restaurants, including the Italian Disco, are in the same building as us, and Tagliata is on the other side of that courtyard.”

A week ago, Alex Smith came out and confronted a group of informational Guild picketers.

They told him they were on public property and were courteous to passersby.

Smith insisted they were intimidating customers. At one point, someone came out of the Atlas restaurant and began filming them, according to participant Joan Jacobson, a retired Sun and Evening Sun reporter.

“If you block the entrance, I will call the police,” she recalled Smith saying, even after she explained they were walking away.

“You’re not listening to me,” she says she told him. “We’re leaving.”

Pay Raise and Protection

Ahead of David Smith’s arrival last night, the leafleters approached passersby, including the district’s former city councilman, Robert Stokes, who was headed to the Tagliata event.

The handout urged people to send a letter to Smith, with a link to suggested text. The flier included a list of things the Guild is fighting for, including “to maintain strong journalistic standards, [to fight against management’s] ability to easily fire workers and our first raise in 12 years.”

In addition to pushing for better pay and and job protections, the Sun Guild has been calling out changes – sourcing, framing, focus –  at the newspaper that they say have compromised its journalistic principles.

• Baltimore Sun staffers decry “non-union, sub-standard” Sinclair content in the paper under its new owners (8/14/24)

• Baltimore Sun fires reporter for raising questions internally about news coverage under David Smith’s ownership (9/12/24)

Since they began raising the issue last summer, those changes have only intensified.

There have been days when the only bylines on the front page of the print edition are those of Fox 45 reporters.

A former veteran Sun copy editor keeps track of the more outrageous typos: “100-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor dies at 83” was a recent favorite. So was “Mangione Waves Extradition” in a Sun email.

Staff Exodus

Reporters continue to flee the paper, many saying they did so out of dismay over the way stories attacking juvenile crime and city government are written.

“I resigned my role because of growing concerns about the direction of criminal justice coverage under new ownership,” reporter Darcy Costello wrote on “X” in November.

There have been new hires, but Guild leaders have been looking into whether their classification and assignments are meant to undermine the union.

The staff exodus has become so pronounced that management launched an “Employee Referral” program this month.

A memo explains the offer of “a $2,000 bonus to employees who refer qualified candidates who are hired and remain with the company for at least one year.”

“With all due respect …”

In her back-and-forth with Smith, Davis focused on the contract issues.

“There are still a lot of union-busting clauses on the table,” she said. “If you get rid of that, we can get a contract done. I mean, come on, being able to fire people without just cause?”

The Sun owner dismissed her concerns.

“Nobody does that. There are laws to protect people from that,” he said.

“The language that your lawyers have put forward does not protect us,” Davis protested, going on to question other provisions that she said hurt employees and depress Guild membership.

“Having a union and having a voice is a really valuable thing. It makes our journalists better,” she argued.

Smith: “Do you work for the paper?”
Davis: “I’m a staff photographer. And I’ve been at the paper for 37 years.”

At this point, Smith demanded: “Do you work for the paper? What do you do?”

“My name is Amy Davis,” she told him. “I’m a staff photographer. And I’ve been at the paper for 37 years.”

Seguing from that answer to what sounded like small talk, Davis brought up the fact that Smith is an amateur photographer himself.

“Your photos are all around the newsroom – there’s a big panorama photo of the harbor,” she said, asking Smith when it was taken and where it was previously hung.

“A long time ago. It was in my house in Florida that I sold,” he said, launching into hobbyist’s details about what kind of camera he’d shot it with.

But Davis had a point to make.

“With all due respect to the photo, that’s one nice big wall in our newsroom,” she told him. “We’d really like to see the work of our staff. We have an award-winning staff, and none of their pictures are in our newsroom.”

Insulting the Competition

Smith had his own points to press.

“I’m curious,” he said. Why have so many departing Sun journalists joined the non-union Baltimore Banner?

For one thing, Davis replied, she heard they are getting $20,000 more a year in pay.

“Let’s assume they do. Are you suggesting that money is the issue?” he pressed on, to which Davis said journalists need both respect and money.

“So far what we’ve seen at the table does not demonstrate respect, David. It does not,” she said.

At this point, a Banner photographer showed up, and Smith started grilling him.

“What does the Banner do?”

“A lot of things. Journalism, mostly.”

“Oh, really? That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of you before.”

As the conversation wound down, Smith called his sidewalk interaction with Davis “great.”

Why?

“It creates visibility in the marketplace,” he proclaimed. “More people now buy the paper because of this, so please keep it up.”

Davis’ colleagues thought the exchange was great, too.

They broke out in a hearty round of applause as Smith turned and headed into the restaurant.