The controversy concerning layoffs of Northern California Media Workers Guild leaders at the Contra Costa Times we posted about in July has resulted in an online petition calling for fair labor practices, with the intention of presenting it to management of the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday.

According to the petition, 20 of the 29 employees laid off at the Times were highly active in union organizing, including Sara Steffens, who was chosen to negotiate the new union's contract.

The layoffs are under review by the National Labor Relations Board.

Profit uncertainty is about to spell doom for family ownership of one of the nation's largest newspapers.

According the its Web site, the owners of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Copley Press, are looking for a prospective buyer for the publication and other local holdings in southern California.

Newspapers are "too elitist."

Newspapers should be "INTELLIGENT … not intellectual."

So are the words of Lee Abrams, a former XM Radio satellite executive and now chief innovation officer at the Tribune Company, according to Eric Alterman's blog.

Cutbacks at major newspapers have done little to reassure Wall Street investors, one observer of the media business has said.

Alan Mutter, author of the blog Reflections of a Newsosaur, wrote last Wednesday that precipitous drops in the value of stock at news companies such as Gannett, McClatchy, and the New York Times Co. have made taking the companies private a viable and worthwhile option.

The union representing employees with Dean Singleton’s Bay Area News Group are alleging staff cuts were retaliatory, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The Northern California Media Workers Guild filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, concerned that the 13 percent staff reductions at the Contra Costa Times targeted union organizers.

The layoffs came two weeks after staff voted in favor of union representation at the Contra Costa Times, and includes several strong proponents of unionizing the Times’ 225 eligible employees.