Mashable, PC Mag, and Lifehacker win unprecedented AI protections in new union contract

In a precedent-setting contract negotiation, the editorial union for Mashable, Lifehacker, and PC Mag has successfully bargained for protections against generative AI. The tentative contract explicitly prohibits any union member from being laid off or receiving a cut in their base salary as a result of the publications using generative AI.

The tentative contract with Ziff Davis, the digital media company that owns all three publications, was announced Monday. The union will vote on whether to ratify it on July 24.

“We have won strong AI protections in other collective bargaining agreements, but the language in Ziff Davis Creators Guild’s tentative agreement is exceptionally protective of jobs and pay,” said Jennifer Sheehan, a spokesperson for The NewsGuild of New York, which represents the union for Mashable, Lifehacker, and PC Mag. All together the Ziff Davis Creators’ Guild totals about 60 members.

WALKOUT AVERTED

A week after workers organized a practice picket, the @zdcreatorsguild has reached a tentative three-year contract agreement, averting a walkout on #PrimeDay

Highlights: Wage increases of up to 3% & industry-leading AI protections. https://t.co/Xa8E2lUxqR

— NewsGuild-CWA (@newsguild) July 15, 2024

The language around AI in the contract, which I reviewed, doesn’t place specific restrictions on the way generative AI is used in the editorial process — say, whether it can be used to write headlines, for reporting, or to draft articles in their entirety. But it requires that any content created by generative AI “be done at the direction of and with the editorial review of human beings with editing responsibilities.”

Last fall, Ziff Davis entered a partnership with the generative AI company Xyla, and announced plans to integrate Xyla’s medical text generation tool into its health and wellness sites. To date, there have been no reports of Mashable, Lifehacker or PC Mag publishing AI-generated content.

If the company does decide to publish AI-generated text on those sites, the contract requires the stories be clearly labeled as “AI-generated content.” If the AI-generated content is in audio or video form, the disclosure has to occur in the actual video or audio, not only in the text description.

In another notable concession, if Ziff Davis moves ahead with implementing generative AI tools, the contract would require management to form an “AI subcommittee” to discuss those plans, and union members would be required to have a seat at that table. “The subcommittee’s goal is to create a space, legally binding in the contract, for our union members to be part of discussions about AI,” said Sheehan.

The contract also prohibits using generative AI to impersonate a specific employee or team without their consent. The concern is not without precedent. Earlier this month, the new owners of The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), a popular tech blog that shut down nearly a decade ago, began publishing AI-generated content under the bylines of former staff writers without permission.

These generative AI protections are included alongside more standard contract terms, including a $65,000 base salary and inflation-based raises across the board for Ziff Davis union members.

The tentative contract is the latest win for newsroom unions, which over the past year have been trying to bolster labor protections against encroaching generative AI technology.

Last August, FT Specialist, an intelligence wing of the FT, ratified its contract, which included one of the first contract clauses targeting AI. The FT is required to discuss the introduction of any “new technology” with the union in advance and the union has “the right to bargain expeditiously” over the effects of that new tech.

Last December, the Associated Press’ union signed a three-year contract, which they announced included “protections against the riskier aspects of AI.” The terms of that contract haven’t been made public.

In January, the contract for the Minnesota-focused nonprofit MinnPost went into effect with its own AI protections. The language requires MinnPost to follow the Associated Press (AP) and Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) guidelines on using AI in newsrooms. All AI-generated content must be edited and fact-checked by a human before publication.

In March, a coalition of national unions representing print, digital and broadcast journalists sent an open letter to Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer calling for legislation to protect their workers from AI displacement. “It is essential that journalists are not replaced by misguided media companies looking to maximize profits at the expense of human-driven journalism that informs the public and holds our institutions accountable,” the NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss wrote in the letter.

Among newsrooms under the national umbrella of the NewsGuild-CWA, the Ziff Davis contract is the first of its kind, mainly for including outright protections against layoffs and decreases in salary because of generative AI.

According to union members, contract negotiations with Ziff Davis reached a turning point over the past couple weeks, after the union voted to authorize a walkout on Prime Day. The Amazon shopping sprees on July 16 and 17 are high-traffic days for Mashable, Lifehacker and PC Mag. Altogether the sites produce roughly 100 Prime Day-focused product reviews, listicles and gadget write-ups, according to the union. Most of those include affiliate links, which are core part of Ziff Davis’ revenue.

“Over the last two weeks, we prepared ourselves to walkout over Prime Day,” said Jordan Minor, a senior apps and games analyst at PCMag. “We braved the heat wave, distributed informational fliers to the public outside company headquarters in Manhattan and held packed strategy sessions in the event we could not reach a fair deal by Prime Day. This tentative agreement shows us that all that hard work — our collective actions and solidarity — paid off.”