Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild

What Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild does

The Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild (TNG-CWA Local 37002) is a non-profit labor union founded in 1933 that represents approximately 500 employees across 29 bargaining units in Minnesota, primarily in the Twin Cities and Duluth. It is the second local to receive a Guild charter, originally organized in 1933 with the assistance of Heywood Broun, founder of The Newspaper Guild. The organization operates five categories of bargaining units: news organizations (Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, MinnPost, Duluth News Tribune, Public News Service), language interpreters (Hennepin Healthcare Systems), nonprofit organizations (ACLU of Minnesota, TakeAction Minnesota, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits), staff of unions (Minnesota AFL-CIO, SEIU, UFCW, UNITE HERE), and print shop organizations.

The Guild's core service is collective bargaining representation — negotiating contracts covering wages, hours, and working conditions, handling grievances, and providing member advocacy. Supporting services include a monthly newsletter (ShopTalk, launched June 2023), virtual membership meetings, organizing resources for workers seeking to form unions, and participation in the Minneapolis and St. Paul Regional Labor Federations. The organization has no proprietary technology products; its digital footprint is limited to a WordPress website and email communications. It is a sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which has over 600,000 members nationally, following a 1995 merger.

The Guild is funded primarily through member dues collected from represented employees. The organization is member-controlled, governed by an elected Executive Committee and Representative Assembly, with a three-person staff (Executive Officer Debbie Prokopf, Operations Manager Whitney Woods, and Internal Organizer Allana Olson). Historical mergers — including the 1995 TNG-CWA merger, the 2000 merger with Typographical Union Local 30 (Minnesota's first craft union, organized 1850), and the 2016 merger with the Lake Superior Newspaper Guild — have shaped its current membership and geographic footprint.

Name

Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild

Legal name

Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild

Website

https://mnguild.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1933

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild (TNG-CWA Local 37002) is a 1933-founded labor union representing 500+ employees across 29 bargaining units in Minnesota, covering news organizations, healthcare interpreters, nonprofits, union staff, and print shops through collective bargaining and contract negotiation.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Saint Paul

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Member Dues: Union operates through membership dues collected from represented employees. Revenue supports collective bargaining, contract negotiations, grievance handling, and member advocacy across all bargaining units.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild is a labor union that represents over 500 employees across 29 bargaining units, negotiating collective bargaining agreements covering wages, hours, and working conditions. The Guild organizes workers in news organizations, healthcare language interpreters, nonprofit organizations, union staff, and print shops, while also providing grievance representation, contract interpretation, and organizing support for employees seeking to form new units.

Product overview

The Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild operates as a single, unified union offering with multiple service areas rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core offering is collective bargaining representation for workers across five bargaining unit categories: News Organizations (Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, MinnPost, Duluth News Tribune, and others), Language Interpreters (Hennepin Healthcare Systems), Nonprofit Organizations (ACLU of Minnesota, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, and others), Staff of Unions (SEIU, UFCW, UNITE HERE, and others), and Print Shop Organizations. Supporting services include MN Guild Newsletters for member communication and organizing information resources for workers seeking to form unions. Each unit bargains its own contract independently while the Guild provides grievance representation for contract violations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Bargaining Unit Representation Services Union representation services that negotiate and administer collective bargaining contracts covering wages, hours, and working conditions for over 500 employees across 29 bargaining units, including news organizations, language interpreters, nonprofit organizations, union staff, and print shop workers. Each unit bargains its own contract independently while the Guild provides grievance representation for contract violations.

Named customers8 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and historical.

• NewsGuild-CWAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026National parent organization representing journalists and media workers. NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss issued statement supporting Minnesota local member detained by ICE, demonstrating national union solidarity.
• Lake Superior Newspaper GuildmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016In 2016, the Lake Superior Newspaper Guild (representing Duluth News Tribune) and the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild voted to merge into one Guild Local, expanding coverage to Northern Minnesota.
• Minneapolis-St. Paul Typographical Union, Local 30coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2000On January 1, 2000, the Local merged with the Typographical Union Local 30, which represented over 150 typographers in several shops throughout the Twin Cities. Local 30 was the first craft union organized in Minnesota (in 1850).
• Communications Workers of America (CWA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 1995The Newspaper Guild merged with the Communications Workers of America in September 1995, becoming a sector of this large union with over 600,000 members. This merger significantly expanded the Guild's resources and collective bargaining power.
• Heywood BrounhistoricalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1933Founder credited with creating The Newspaper Guild who assisted in organizing the Twin Cities Local in 1933. Broun took the lead in opening the Guild to other newspaper employees beyond editorial staff.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/MinnesotaGuild

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Minnesota Newspaper & Communications Guild