Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2025
Suzanne Roig
The Bulletin reporter, Central Oregon News Guild bargaining committee member
(808) 741-7175
roiggordons@gmail.com
Noemi Arellano-Summer
The Bulletin reporter, Central Oregon News Guild bargaining committee member
(562) 533-4503
noemisummer@gmail.com
Courtney Scott
Executive Officer, The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild
(206) 669-3562
executiveofficer@pnwguild.org
The Bulletin journalists seek community support in fight against Carpenter Media’s low wages
Quality journalism depends on local journalists who can live in the community they report on, but Carpenter Media Group, the current owner of The Bulletin, is requiring staffers to accept wages well below what’s needed to live in Bend.
The NewsGuild staffers are asking readers to email Carpenter Media Group in support of the guild so staffers can get a living wage, severance and job protections from Carpenter Media Group, which has 270 publications in the United States and Canada. They are asking subscribers to email Publisher John Carr at john.carr@bendbulletin.com and President and CEO Tim Prince at tim.prince@carpentermediagroup.com.
"Reporters at The Bulletin are your neighbors,” said Suzanne Roig, The Bulletin's health and business reporter. “We care about our community, but we can't afford to make Bend our home without support from our readers.”
In Bend, where the cost of living is estimated at 32.5% higher than the national average, staffers earn about $21 an hour. That wage leaves staff nearly $10,000 short of what estimates say a person needs to rent a home in the city – and about $40,000 short of what someone needs to buy a home.
Carpenter should be setting the standard for quality local news. And it should know the salaries journalists need to live and work in a community.
In a message on its website to readers, Carpenter chairman Todd Carpenter says that putting financial motives ahead of quality journalism “wreck newspapers, plain and simple.” Without community support for The Bulletin staffers, that is the destiny for a newspaper that has served Central Oregon since 1903.
Carpenter has a record of slashing newsrooms. By the time Carpenter bought The Bulletin in October 2024, it had already demonstrated it prefers to support quality journalism through layoffs: One of the first things it did after purchasing The Everett Herald in 2024 in Washington was cut more than half its staff. This was part of 62 other layoffs in the news group the Herald belongs to, Sound Publishing.
At The Bulletin, Carpenter has not offered an increase in wages and instead wants to lay off its two most experienced staffers – a reporter and a photographer – and a second photographer.
Staffers at The Bulletin, like those at the Herald, belong to The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild. The three staffers facing layoffs at The Bulletin are union members.
The Bulletin NewsGuild is calling on subscribers to email Publisher John Carr at john.carr@bendbulletin.com and Tim Prince, Carpenter CEO and president at tim.prince@carpentermediagroup.com, in support of giving journalists the pay and working conditions they deserve.
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.
###
The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local #37082) represents more than 350 workers in Washington, Idaho and Alaska, united in the belief that strong jobs preserve strong journalism in the Northwest. Find more at pnwguild.org/savepnwnews
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2025
For media inquiries: TheEverettNewsGuild@gmail.com
Courtney Scott
Executive Officer, The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild
(206) 669-3562
Everett Herald journalists call for community support in battle against low wages, story quotas
Carpenter Media won’t budge on $20.50/hr wages with raises tied to 2-3 story/day quotas as it decimates local journalism in the Pacific Northwest; affected journalists available for interviews
EVERETT — 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.
###
The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local #37082) represents more than 350 workers in Washington, Idaho and Alaska, united in the belief that strong jobs preserve strong journalism in the Northwest. Find more at pnwguild.org/savepnwnews