RELEASE: Guild condemns Cascade PBS layoffs and newsroom shutdown

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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CWA, NABET-CWA, and NewsGuild-CWA condemn unlawful executive order interfering with press freedom for public media

Contact: Moira Bulloch – mbulloch@cwa-union.org / 202-434-1168

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, representing public media workers at local stations for NPR and PBS across the country and non-editorial workers at the national headquarters of NPR and PBS, has condemned President Trump’s unlawful executive order impeding the freedom of the press for local public TV and radio stations receiving funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). 

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Newsletter: Pittsburgh strikers are closer than ever to winning their strike

I just got back from a rally in front of the Washington Post because…

The Post’s tech workers just announced they’re unionizing! More than 300 workers across engineering, product design and data have formed the Washington Post Tech Guild are seeking voluntary recognition from the company. Represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and supported by the CODE-CWA campaign, they’re organizing to win equity, transparency and a voice in their workplace.

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Newsletter: The U.S. Senate has a chance to pass the bi-partisan PRESS Act

The U.S. Senate has a chance to pass the bi-partisan PRESS Act, a bill that would protect journalists and sources from government overreach. The legislation would create protections that already exist in almost every U.S. state. It would protect against future administrations intimidating whistleblowers and journalists and increase protections already provided in the First Amendment. 

Continue reading “Newsletter: The U.S. Senate has a chance to pass the bi-partisan PRESS Act”