Reich v. Newspapers of New England, Inc.
23 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1257, 44 F.3d 1060, 2 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 897 (1995)
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Rule of Law:
The work of journalists, including reporters, editors, and photographers, at a typical local newspaper does not qualify for the 'professional employee' exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when their primary duties consist of routine fact-gathering and reporting rather than work that is predominantly original, creative, analytical, or dependent upon a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.
Facts:
- Newspapers of New England, Inc. published The Concord Monitor, a small-city newspaper in New Hampshire.
- The Monitor's editor-in-chief, Mike Pride, generally required a college degree with an emphasis on writing, but a journalism degree was not a prerequisite for employment.
- The reporters' primary duties involved 'general assignment' work, such as covering legislative sessions, municipal meetings, and court proceedings, with a focus on reporting 'hard news' factually.
- Reporter Randall Keith testified that his writing was not highly complex and could have been performed by anyone with general training and ability.
- Editors' main duties consisted of reading wire stories for grammatical and factual errors, writing headlines, and performing routine page layout.
- Photographers testified that most of their work was assigned, covering events like sports and accidents, and that a large portion of it was 'run-of-the-mill and pretty standardized.'
- The Monitor discouraged employees from reporting overtime and several employees were told by superiors to alter their timecards to show fewer than the actual hours worked.
Procedural Posture:
- The U.S. Secretary of Labor sued Newspapers of New England, Inc. (d/b/a The Concord Monitor) and its publisher in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.
- The Secretary alleged willful violations of the FLSA's overtime and recordkeeping provisions.
- Following a bench trial, the district court found that The Monitor's newsroom employees were not exempt professionals and awarded back wages.
- The district court also found the violations were not willful, thereby limiting the statute of limitations to two years, and denied the Secretary's request for a permanent injunction.
- Both the Secretary of Labor (as Plaintiff-Appellant) and Newspapers of New England (as Defendants-Appellants) filed cross-appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
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Issue:
Do the reporters, editors, and photographers employed by a small community newspaper qualify for the 'artistic' or 'learned' professional employee exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act, thereby exempting them from the Act's overtime and recordkeeping requirements?
Opinions:
Majority - Torruella, Chief Judge
No, the employees do not qualify for the professional employee exemption under the FLSA. The court affirmed the district court's finding that the reporters, editors, and photographers were not exempt professionals and were entitled to overtime pay. The court held that the Department of Labor's long-standing interpretations of the professional exemption, while not binding, remained persuasive authority. Under the 'artistic professional' exemption test, the court found the employees' work depended primarily on 'intelligence, diligence, and accuracy,' not the 'invention, imagination, or talent' required for exemption. Their day-to-day duties, such as covering public meetings and rewriting wire stories, were not predominantly 'original and creative.' Under the 'learned professional' exemption, the court found that journalism is not a learned profession because it does not customarily require a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, as evidenced by the fact that no specific academic degree is a prerequisite for entry into the field.
Analysis:
This decision reaffirms the narrow construction of the FLSA's professional exemptions and solidifies the continuing relevance of the Department of Labor's decades-old interpretations regarding journalists. By siding with the Secretary of Labor, the court sets a high bar for newspaper publishers seeking to classify their general newsroom staff as exempt from overtime, particularly at smaller, local publications. The case distinguishes between the routine, fact-based work of most reporters and the more analytical, interpretive, or creative work of columnists or top-flight critics, thereby limiting the exemption's application to a small minority of journalists. This precedent strengthens protections for newsroom employees and clarifies that a college degree and general writing skill are insufficient to qualify an employee as a 'learned' or 'artistic' professional under the FLSA.
