UPDATE June 25,11:30 a.m.: This morning the Everett NewsGuild announced that they will continue its strike today, June 25 after “employer’s failure to set bargaining dates and meet other demands.”
Yesterday June 24, the Everett NewsGuild went on strike and picketed from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. along Colby Avenue, making their way to the Everett Herald building, asking employer Carpenter Media Group to reinstate jobs that were laid off last week among other demands.
The Everett NewsGuild is asking Carpenter Media Group to provide “adequate time and dates for negotiations.”
According to the Guild, Carpenter Media Group cannot legally lay off union workers without negotiating terms and effects with the union.
Carpenter Media Group initially informed the Guild that the effective date of layoffs would be July 1. According to the Guild, Carpenter Media Group has rejected bargaining dates proposed by the union.
The full press release can be accessed here: https://x.com/snocaleb/status/1805619456624017560/photo/1
This story is ongoing.
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EVERETT June 24: On the corner of Colby and Hewitt Ave. in Downtown Everett, former and current Everett Herald employees picketed for current owners Carpenter Media Group to “come to the bargaining table” to discuss reinstating jobs, among other demands.
Last week Carpenter Media Group, the new owners of The Daily Herald in Everett, laid off 12 employees, 10 of which were union workers under the Everett NewsGuild, represented by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild.
“Today we are on strike and refusing to work because our recent owners Carpenter Media laid off half the newsroom and we just don’t believe this is the right move for covering Snohomish County. It’s one of the fastest, if not the fastest growing county in the state,” Sydney Jackson, NewsGuild member on the bargaining committee said.
As of June 24, positions laid off include executive editor, managing editor, page designer, web producer, six reporters and two photographers, half of the newsroom at the time according to a press release from the Everett NewsGuild.
Jackson said the Everett Herald newsroom was already struggling to cover all of Snohomish County. Instead of cutting the newsroom in half, Carpenter Media Group should be investing in journalism, Jackson said.
Carpenter Media Group announced this week they plan to lay off at least 62 employees across Sound Publishing.
In an article by Janice Podsada and Andrea Brown, that was taken down and republished, Carpenter Media Group included this statement:
“Our responsibility to the community and our readers requires us to make difficult business decisions, and then invest in and organize our team to move forward to produce a product that continues to improve and serve. Our track record in this process is good. We seek to work with the best and brightest and to pay them well. We must have a strong business with highly productive people to meet our standards, and with the help of our team and community we expect to meet them here in the days to come.”
Among the former and current Everett Herald journalists at the strike, government and city officials came to stand in solidarity for local journalism. In the group included Washington State Rep. Rick Larsen, Everett councilmembers Mary Fosse and Paula Rhyne, Snohomish County Councilmember Megan Dunn and more.
“Local news and investigative journalism is really important to communities and it helps us keep government accountable but also educates the community on what’s going on,” Fosse said. “With this major corporate buy-up of all local news media, it’s not serving the public well and I am out here to support our local journalists.”
Carpenter Media Group owns more than 100 papers in the U.S. and has continued to expand with its recent purchase of Oregon’s largest media company Pamplin Media Group.
The Herald is the oldest and most prominent news source in Snohomish County, with 3.2 million monthly online page views and a print circulation of 18,627 according to the press release.
“The Herald means a lot to me, to my family, to the region. I understand that newspapers are a business, but the result of what’s happening won’t be what is covered, it will be all the things that aren’t being covered,” Larsen said.
The NewsGuild is also protesting a quota system that they believe was used in the layoff process judging journalists on story likes and page views, instead of quality of work, the press release said.
“We don’t feel confident in the way the layoff process was handled. They [Carpenter Media Group] did this in a way that felt secretive. Part of working at the Herald is you don’t have quotas and it seems that is what they are judging us off of,” Jackson said.
The Everett NewsGuild was formed in 2022 and has been working with ownership on its first contract since March 2023. On May 1, company leadership provided the NewsGuild with a proposed starting wage of $19.50.
In the NewsGuild press release they state that “under federal labor law, employers cannot pursue layoffs before negotiating with its Guild represented members.”
Former Herald reporter Isabella Breda began a GoFundMe two days ago to help pay workers who won’t be paid today while on strike. They have reached $10,000 of its $13,000 goal as of 11:43 a.m. June 24.
Everett Herald readers have also sent in letters to the Herald to express their concern over the situation. Patti Olsen from Snohomish sent in:
“I did not subscribe to The Herald to support a company from Alabama that lays off a great local news team.
This is too much.
I have really enjoyed my subscription to The Herald, and I have learned a lot about what is happening in my county. Not sure I’ll keep my subscription after this.
This is a sad day for journalism.”
This story is ongoing.
