Scoop: The Athletic employees mull union

• The Gray Lady reached a new contract agreement with its newsroom union last May, after two years of bitter negotiations that included more than 1,100 staffers walking out in 2022.
• The Times' tech workers union, which is still negotiating its first contract with management, saw workers strike last year over return-to-office policies. It also filed a National Labor Relations Board complaint that the Times eventually agreed to settle in 2022.
• Unionized Wirecutter workers reached a new, three-year contract with management last week. During its previous contract negotiations in 2021, staffers from the product review site walked off the job during the lucrative Thanksgiving shopping weekend.

Driving the news: The Athletic's stand-alone website on Monday was officially merged with the Times' site. Social media posts now display links to nytimes.com.

• The change, publisher David Perpich explained in a note to staff, will bolster ad and subscription capabilities for the site and make The Athletic "more easily accessible to New York Times subscribers by removing their need to log in on the web."

Yes, but: For some staffers, the integration represents further uncertainty, sources told Axios.

• The Times last year cut its sports section and offered its staffers new roles within the company, a move that drew pushback from its sports staff. The month prior, The Athletic cut 20 jobs amid a reorganization.

Between the lines: The Athletic would likely need to form its own bargaining unit within the NewsGuild of New York and establish its own contract with management.

• Sources told Axios there have been conversations about a unionization effort between the NewsGuild and some staffers from The Athletic.
• Asked about active union discussions, Jen Sheehan, a spokesperson for the NewsGuild of New York, wouldn't confirm talks but said, "It is our mission to ensure any media worker who wants to be in a union can be."
• The Washington Post reported in 2022 that staffers at The Athletic were mulling a union effort amid sale talks, but that push ultimately fizzled when employees got paid out from the sale to the Times.

Zoom in: There's precedent for how the Times manages website integrations.

• The Times transitioned the URL from Wirecutter, which it acquired in 2016, over to its main URL in 2020. (Wirecutter had already formed a union in 2019 that was voluntarily recognized by the Times.)

The big picture: In previous union discussions with management, there have been questions about whether The Athletic staffers would be eligible for representation by the Times' editorial union, which won historic wage increases in its contract agreement with the Times in 2023.

• In one union negotiation meeting, a source noted, Times managers cited The Athletic as a site from which it licenses content, like a wire service, marking a clear differentiation from its newsroom.
• In developing its own union as a separate bargaining unit within the NewsGuild, the Wirecutter has already set a precedent for acquired companies establishing separate bargaining units from the Times' newsroom union.

Zoom out: The Times has paid over $1 million in licensing fees to The Athletic over the past two quarters, according to company filings.

• The Times reported in its most recent earnings report that The Athletic received $563,000 from the Times to license its content last quarter. It received $656,000 from the Times the quarter before that.
• Such "intersegment eliminations," as they are referred to in the Times' press release, were not listed prior to the fourth quarter of 2023.
• "As a value exchange between separate operating entities, the New York Times pays a licensing fee to The Athletic," a spokesperson said.

What to watch: The Olympics will serve as a key moment to observe how the Times manages the convergence of content and resources between its newsroom and The Athletic's.