The California Newspaper Workers Guild reports that award-winning reporter Karen de Sa’ was elected by her colleagues Thursday (Aug. 20) to lead a new team of Guild officers at the San Jose Mercury News.

Unit members elected de Sa’ by acclimation to serve out the remainder of a three-year term as Mercury News Unit Chair, through December 2010. The previous unit chair, Mary Anne Ostrow, a political writer, resigned from the newspaper this summer.

De Sa’ said it was time for news workers to stand their ground for quality jobs and quality journalism. “If we don’t fight for this, who will?” she said.

The ongoing tumult in the newspaper industry, including deep staff cuts and consolidations by Mercury News owner MediaNews Group, has virtually wiped out the Guild Unit’s top leadership.

Besides Ostrow, Sylvia Ulloa, a page designer who was president of the former San Jose Guild local and a special vice president of the merged Media Workers, recently stepped down along with vice chair John Fensterwald, who left for an extended fellowship, and secretary Jack Davis, a business reporter.

Reporter Lisa Krieger was elected to serve as vice chair of the unit. Three new delegates — Joe Rodriguez, Tracey Kaplan and Mike Swift — were chosen to serve on the Local Representative Assembly, joining Bill Russell, a member of the last negotiating committee who already serves on the RA.

Here’s a link to the full story on the Guild’s site. (Photo credit: Guild)