Everett Herald news staff are asking subscribers to support their contract fight as Carpenter Media Group continues to offer low wages and tie meager raises to story quotas.
The NewsGuild is calling on Everett Herald subscribers to email Publisher Carrie Radcliff at carrie.radcliff@heraldnet.com and regional Carpenter manager John Carr at john.carr@bendbulletin.com, saying they are willing to cancel their subscription in the future if they fail to give journalists the pay and working conditions they deserve.
The union isn’t asking for readers to cancel subscriptions today — that will only happen at a later date if Carpenter Media Group doesn’t negotiate a fair contract with The NewsGuild.
The union is also calling on community members to sign a petition online: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-journalists-at-the-everett-herald.
Since the Everett NewsGuild formed in 2022, its members have been fighting for fair wages, adequate benefits and the ability to continue to produce meaningful, impactful journalism.
Carpenter Media, now the fourth-largest media company in the country, bought The Herald last year along with dozens of other small, local newspapers across the Pacific Northwest. Last year, Carpenter laid off more than half of The Herald’s news staff.
After months of negotiating with our union for a first contract, the company is still offering a base pay rate of $20.50 per hour, barely above Everett’s minimum wage and less than Seattle’s. It’s far below the cost of living in Snohomish County, which is $30.25 per hour for a single person with no kids, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator.
In addition to refusing to pay its reporters livable wages, Carpenter wants to tie a meager $1 per hour pay increase to brutal quotas, requiring 2-3 stories a day per reporter. If reporters don’t hit the quota, they don’t get the raise.
This is an impossible ask — with devastating consequences. Journalists at The Herald won’t be able to give important stories the time they deserve for proper coverage. Tying wages to the quantity of stories will force them to choose between their livelihoods and quality journalism.
“I often drive to rural, eastern parts of the county to cover habitat restoration projects, agricultural practices and land-use issues,” said Eliza Aronson, the environment and climate reporter for the Herald. “If Carpenter implements quotas, I won’t be able to deeply cover issues that affect community members, regardless of if you live in Everett or Gold Bar.”
“It takes time to produce quality journalism that is accurate and meaningful,” Herald reporter Jenna Peterson said. “Tying story quotas to wages incentivizes rushed, sloppy reporting and it may mean important stories go untold. Our community deserves better.”
Quality local journalism is more important than ever as the number of news outlets across Washington continues to shrink. The state has lost 20% of its newspapers since 2004, according to a 2022 report from the League of Women Voters of Washington. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office reported in 2020 that Washington newsrooms lost 67% of their workers from 2005 to 2020, a higher share than the 59% loss nationally.
“We are already under a lot of pressure with a barebones staff,” Herald reporter Will Geschke said. “Tying story quotas to our livelihood will only make things worse.”
Herald journalists who will be affected by these proposals are available for interviews. See contact information above to get in touch.
BACKGROUND INFO:
- The Everett Herald is the oldest and most prominent source of news in Snohomish County, the third-largest and fastest growing county in Washington state — projected to hit more than 1 million people in the coming years. This year, Herald staff won six regional Society of Professional Journalism awards.
- The Everett Herald is one of 43 media outlets in Washington and Alaska under Sound Publishing. In March 2024, Sound Publishing’s longtime parent company, British Columbia-based Black Press, sold to new ownership after filing for Canadian creditor protection, a process similar to bankruptcy in the United States. The new ownership includes Carpenter Media Group and Canadian investors Canso Investment Counsel and Deans Knight Capital Management.
- Carpenter Media, based in the South, owns more than 270 papers in the United States and Canada. The company has continued its shopping spree and become one of the largest newspaper owners in the country, all while showing a pattern of acquiring local newspapers only to slash their staff. Here in the Northwest, Carpenter bought about two dozen Oregon publications under Pamplin Media Group, the largest media company in the Portland metro area and began layoffs there last summer. The company now appears poised to slash more jobs at other Oregon newspapers. In late June, the company laid off six journalists at the Portland Tribune, leaving the paper with two reporters and no editor.
- Everett Herald newsroom staff unionized in a unanimous vote in 2022, becoming the Everett NewsGuild. After Carpenter’s layoffs last summer, Everett NewsGuild members went on strike for two days. The newsroom now includes just two news editors, five news reporters and one photographer, along with sports and opinion staff.
- In recent contract negotiations, management has proposed a starting wage of $20.50 per hour, which is already the current wage floor in the newsroom, along with a $1-per-hour raise only for staff who hit a quota of two to three stories per day. The Guild has communicated to management that tying wages to quotas is absolutely unacceptable.
Source: The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild
COMMENTARY DISCLAIMER: The views and comments expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Lynnwood Times nor any of its affiliate.
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
