Everett News Guild fighting for local journalism

Workers are protesting Carpenter Media Group’s proposal to tie a wage increase to a story quota, undermining the quality of local journalism

EVERETT, WA (July 9, 2025) — After months of negotiating, journalists at the Everett Herald are calling on the public to stand with them as they fight for fair wages and respect for the vital work they do writing local stories that matter to local communities.

The Everett NewsGuild was formed in the fall of 2022 and workers have been fighting for a first contract ever since.

Carpenter Media Group, one of the largest media companies in the country and owner of more than eighty local Pacific Northwest news outlets, bought The Herald last year. Workers were pushed to strike when Carpenter then handed down layoffs that cut the newsroom staff in half. 10 of 18 union workers were given pink slips, a move that the Publisher erroneously declared, “readers won’t notice.”

A year later, the company is still undervaluing the workers, offering a base pay rate of $20.50 per hour, barely above Everett’s minimum wage. Carpenter wants to tie a dollar an hour pay increase to quotas, requiring two to three stories a day per reporter. If reporters don’t churn out stories, they don’t get even that one dollar. There’s an obvious problem; workers need to pay their bills, but pushing out stories to meet a quota undercuts the essential purpose of local news to provide timely, necessary reporting that’s meaningful to Washingtonians.

Everett News Guild members on the strike line in 2024.

“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 said in a statement from the union. “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.”

Workers are rejecting this proposal and calling on readers to stand with them as they oppose this management tactic that would weaken The Herald’s reporting. They’re running a petition to publisher Carrie Radcliff and regional Carpenter manager John Carr, letting them know that readers are willing to cancel subscriptions if management refuses to meet the workers’ demand for improved wages and working conditions.

Workers aren’t asking subscribers to cancel today. But that time may come if Carpenter Media group continues to stonewall and refuse to negotiate a fair contract.

“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.”

TAKE A STAND: sign the Everett News Guild petition. You can also email the publisher at carrie.radcliff@heraldnet.com and the regional manager at john.carr@bendbulletin.com, urging them to respect the workers and settle a contract with fair wages and working conditions.