FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2025
Contact: Courtney Scott, executiveofficer@pnwguild.org | (206) 669-3562
On Monday, September 22, Cascade PBS announced its decision to eliminate its written news and investigations operation which will result in the layoff of nine union journalists of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild along with an early-career fellow and four editors.
The Newspaper Guild and its members denounce this shameful, short-sighted decision by Cascade PBS to abandon its commitment to journalism and abdicate its responsibility as a public media entity at a time when we desperately need more reporters and editors shining a light on the world, not fewer.
When the Cascade PBS newsroom is shuttered on October 31 it will mark the end of nearly two decades of critical local and state news coverage by Crosscut, which later merged with KCTS9 to become Cascade PBS.
In that time, our reporters, editors and photographers have produced award-winning, watch-dog journalism to hold politicians and government officials accountable, lift up stories of people in our community, and help keep the public informed.
To be clear, Congress and the Trump Administration dealt public media organizations a terrible hand when they defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is costing Cascade PBS about 10% of its annual budget in lost federal support.
But make no mistake, the executives at Cascade PBS did not have to eliminate the newsroom and its unionized members. Faced with the loss of federal funding, not a single executive took a pay cut. CEO Rob Dunlop earned more than $500,000 in 2024 and the company paid more than $2 million to its executive team in total. Cascade PBS only eliminated five positions outside of the newsroom of its nearly 140 person staff.
In contrast, other local public media entities have doubled down on their commitment to journalism and responsibility to the communities they serve with emergency fundraising and non-journalist layoffs.
We, the journalists at Cascade PBS, are angry, disappointed and saddened by the choices Cascade PBS’s executives made this week.
We are heartened by the outpouring of support and anger from our readers who recognize the value of our deeply reported, fair, public media journalism.
We will keep fighting to the end to ensure Cascade PBS fulfills its responsibility to its workers and provides them with the best possible support and compensation as it eliminates their jobs. If you support Cascade PBS’s journalists and are upset about this decision, please email Rob Dunlop, Rebecca Farwell and Carole Williams to let them know: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-cascade-pbs-to-take-care-of-their-workers/
And please consider donating to a Gofundme to help the nine union journalists and early-career fellow weather the loss of income and challenging journalism job market. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-cascade-pbs-journalists-after-layoffs
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