Sean Dolan

The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild is shocked and disappointed by @mcclatchy 's decision to lay off 33% of its unionized workers at the Idaho Statesman, The News Tribune (Tacoma), Tri-City Herald, The Olympian and Bellingham Herald. This includes 10 journalists in Idaho, and seven across Washington. These severe cuts will hobble these news organizations and leave the public throughout the Northwest less informed about the events and decisions that affect them, and with fewer people holding the powerful to account. These are journalists  who investigated local hospitals, served as watchdogs over state and local government, showed up at every high school game, jumped in to cover breaking news like wildfires, covered news in overlooked communities, and monitored development in one of the fastest growing regions in the country. One of these papers will no longer have a dedicated reporter covering city hall. Another will no longer have anyone dedicated to covering the state capitol. McClatchy has decided that short-term profits for a hedge fund matter more than the wellbeing of the communities that its newspapers are supposed to serve. That is a model that is destined to fail.