Anchorage Daily News is Alaska’s first union newsroom

Unionized journalists announced ratification of a first contract — the only newsroom collective bargaining agreement in the state

ANCHORAGE, AK (March 6, 2026) — Two years after winning their union, the newsroom staff of the Anchorage Daily News have achieved another significant mile storm: ratification of a first contract. It’s a first not just for the workers, but for the entire state.

“This is a big achievement for Alaska journalists. It feels like we’re laying a foundation for the next generation to work in a sustainable, transparent newsroom,” said reporter Kyle Hopkins.

Reporters, photojournalists, copy editors, online producers, web developers and graphic designers at the Anchorage Daily News voted in November of 2024 to join the The NewsGuild-CWA’s Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which also represents journalists at local papers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In a statement, journalists shared they had been negotiating for less than a year on a first contract. On average, it takes nearly 500 days for workers to secure a first contract after winning their union. In the news business, it can take much longer; fellow PNW Newspaper Guild members at the Everett Herald ratified their first contract three years after organizing.

Members of the unionized Anchorage Daily News. Photo: The NewsGuild-CWA

Anchorage Daily News journalists credited the paper’s local leadership as a key reason they were able to secure a contract relatively quickly.

“The fact that we have a local owner who lives in Alaska, cares about it and recognizes the challenges facing it is one of the major reasons we were able to get a contract done in under a year,” said reporter Zachariah Hughes. “While our members didn’t get everything we wanted, we got a heck of a lot more than we had.”

The contract covering 17 newsroom employees guarantees minimum salaries, raises tied to company revenue and workplace protections for journalists. It includes just cause protections, guaranteed severance, AI protections, and an employee training fund. Workers will receive and average immediate wage increase of 5.6%. And it includes a fairly unique provision that management cannot compel newsroom staff to board flights, boats or other vehicles that the employee reasonably believes in good faith to be unsafe — a pretty significant concern for a newsroom that covers a massive and largely rural state.

Newsroom workers are celebrating the historic win as they continue bringing local news to Alaskans.

“We are all looking forward to being able to recommit our energies fully to the hard work of reporting and covering the news, and believe getting this union up and running makes us better able to do that,” said Hughes.