Carpenter Media Herald Ownership Woes Continue

Everett News Guild picketing on Colby Ave. Photo credit: Washington Labor Council

On Thursday, members of Everett News Guild picketed in Downtown Everett over the Everett Herald staff’s treatment from Carpenter Media. This follows a massive reduction in editorial staff, unreasonable story quotas, a strike, censorship, and a new publisher with no editorial experience.

To add insult to injury, today the Herald downsized their office, moving from a third-floor suite at the old Verizon building to 2500 Hewitt Avenue, next to the Lowe’s parking lot. The Herald had previously operated off Marine View Drive.

Standing with the Everett News Guild were people from SPEEA/IFPTE, AFSCME, OPEIU Local 8, and the Snohomish chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Everett Herald workers asking Carpenter Media for a fair contract. Photo credit: Everett News Guild

Here’s what the Everett News Guild posted as the reason for the “educational picket” on Thursday:

Now, as the union continues to seek its first contract after years of negotiations, Carpenter Media Group still wants to tie journalists’ salaries to the number of articles they write in a day.

Under the company’s current proposal, a reporter would have to write at least 10 stories every week to earn a $1 per hour raise. The base pay would remain the same – $20.50 per hour, barely above Everett’s minimum wage.

That’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.

If that proposal were to go into place, it would be devastating for local news coverage in the region. 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.

“After working for so many months to try and get a contract over the line, it’s disheartening that the company keeps insisting on tying my pay to arbitrary quotas,” said Will Geschke, a reporter at The Daily Herald. “You’d think they’d be smarter than that, but then again, these are the people that laid off half our staff just over a year ago. Everyone can see the effects that’s had on the paper.”

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.

Since the NewsGuild formed in 2022, it’s been fighting for the fair wages, benefits and working conditions that allow us to produce impactful local journalism. But Carpenter Media Group, the current owner of The Daily Herald that the union has been bargaining with since 2024, doesn’t care about local journalism.

Last year, the company laid off more than half of The Herald’s news staff, and others left due to the grueling workload and low pay.

A petition has been set up to pledge Herald subscription cancellations if the wages and story quotas are unaddressed.