Phila Guild may provide online srike newspaper

If Thursday night's deadline for a new guild contract at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News passes without a deal, resulting in a strike by the union's 900 members, guild leaders plan to produce their own online newspaper using striking staffers as reporters and editors.

"My expectation is we would cover everything the Inquirer and Daily News does now," said Stu Bykofsky, a Daily News staffer and guild spokesman. "I think our initial approach would be treating it like a newspaper and updating it throughout the day." He said the union had already purchased and registered a domain name, but declined to reveal the exact Web address. "Working on it could be an alternative to picket duty," he added. "It is still gelling right now."

The strike talk comes just weeks after Publisher Brian Tierney announced plans to cut as many as 150 editorial jobs. Those would come a year after more than 100 job were lost at both papers through a 2005 buyout.

Click on the headline to read Joe Strupp's story in Editor & Publishesr