McClatchy Media has cut 17 journalism jobs at its Washington and Idaho publications, the union representing those workers announced Friday.
Ten unionized workers at the Idaho Statesman have been laid off, as have seven across Washington papers The News Tribune, Tri-City Herald, The Olympian and Bellingham Herald.
Specific details about the Washington layoffs were not publicly available Friday afternoon.
“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,” the Pacific Northwest chapter of the NewsGuild said in an official statement Thursday afternoon.
The layoffs 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,” the NewsGuild stated.
The layoffs are part of cuts McClatchy made in newsrooms nationwide, according to information released by the NewsGuild.
McClatchy representatives did not immediately respond to the Thurston Chronicle’s request for comment.
McClatchy, which owns 30 publications, reportedly laid off more than 90 unionized journalists and media workers across 17 publications, representing about 30% of all unionized McClatchy employees.
“These are journalists and other workers who have been asked to adjust, bend, mold and fit into an ever-changing business, some working for decades at McClatchy. They’ve done so seamlessly,” the NewsGuild said in a news release. “Their reward? They lost their jobs, cut by a company that should spend as much time figuring out how to use high-skilled employees as it does replacing their work with AI.”
The layoffs come less than two months after members of the Pacific Northwest NewsGuild ratified a new three-year contract with McClatchy, securing guaranteed raises and some of the strongest protections against artificial intelligence in the news industry.
That contract came after workers at the five papers represented by the Pacific Northwest NewsGuild went on a one-day strike in May.
The Olympian has been operating as a local newspaper for the Olympia area since 1852. McClatchy Media has owned the publication since it acquired The Olympian’s then-parent company, Knight Ridder, in 2006.
McClatchy has shrunk in recent years, according to reporting from the Poynter Institute. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and was acquired by Chatham Asset Management, and recently shuttered its Washington, D.C. bureau, and sold two of its Georgia papers.
Thursday’s layoffs, however, were considered "the most brutal in more than seven years, " Poynter reported.
