The struggle between the Newspaper Guild of New York and The New York Times to get a new contract hammered out continues. Unionized staffers at the paper have staged a walk-out, have taken a group photo of themselves to give new CEO Mark Thompson, and tomorrow they will take part in “informational hand-billing.”

According to a union memo obtained by Jim Romensko, the union asks staffers to make time between 4 pm and 5:30 pm to distribute information outside of the Times’ headquarters.

“With flyers and placards, we’ll be right outside our own building (and, handily enough, directly across the street from Proskauer Rose, the law firm that is representing the company in the current talks),” states the note. “The public relies on us to give them the story straight.”

The question is, will anyone bother to take a flyer? And if they do, will they just glance at it and then toss it in the trash can on the next corner? Many a flyer have met their death this way.

Jim Romensko got his hands on quite an ominous memo from The Wall Street Journal’s managing editor Robert Thomson today. A source told Romenesko that its being called “the layoff memo” inside the Journal’s newsroom, and its easy to see why.

Here’s a couple snippets:

we must now begin a new phase of integration, creating a single newsroom that does away with duplication and puts extra emphasis on scoops, thoughtful analysis and deeper reporting…

…A team of senior editors will be reaching out to many of you in coming days to solicit opinions and elicit ideas. We will then distil your wisdom (and discard my preconceptions) and move quickly to form new reporting and editing teams to take advantage of the manifold opportunities…

Yeah, doesn’t sound too promising. For the full note, head over to Romenesko.