Quality journalism depends on local journalists who can live in the community they report on, but Carpenter Media Group, the current owner of The Bulletin and the Redmond Spokesman, is requiring staffers to accept wages well below what’s needed to live in Bend.
The Central Oregon NewsGuild staffers are asking readers to email Publisher John Carr at john.carr@bendbulletin.com and President and CEO Tim Prince at tim.prince@carpentermediagroup.com saying they are willing to cancel their subscriptions in the future if Carpenter Media Group fails to give staffers a living wage, severance and job protections from the company, which has 270 publications in the United States and Canada.
The union isn’t asking readers to cancel subscriptions today — that will only happen if Carpenter Media Group doesn’t negotiate a fair contract with Central Oregon NewsGuild.
“Reporters at The Bulletin are your neighbors,” said Suzanne Roig, The Bulletin’s health and business reporter. “We care about our community, but we can’t afford to make Bend our home without support from our readers.”
In Bend, where the cost of living is estimated at 32.5% higher than the national average, staffers earn about $21 an hour. That wage leaves staff nearly $10,000 short of what estimates say a person needs to rent a home in the city — and about $40,000 short of what someone needs to buy a home.
Carpenter should be setting the standard for quality local news. And it should know the salaries journalists need to live and work in a community.
In a message on its website to readers, Carpenter chairman Todd Carpenter says that putting financial motives ahead of quality journalism “wreck newspapers, plain and simple.” Without community support for The Bulletin staffers, that is the destiny for a newspaper that has served Central Oregon since 1903.
Carpenter has a record of slashing newsrooms. By the time Carpenter bought The Bulletin in October 2024, it had already demonstrated it prefers to support quality journalism through layoffs: One of the first things it did after purchasing The Everett Herald in 2024 in Washington was cut more than half its staff. This was part of 62 other layoffs in the news group the Herald belongs to, Sound Publishing.
At The Bulletin, Carpenter has not offered an increase in wages and instead wants to lay off its two most experienced staffers — a reporter and a photographer — and a second photographer.
Staffers at The Bulletin and the Redmond Spokesman, like those at the Herald, belong to The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild. The three staffers facing layoffs at The Bulletin are union members.
Central Oregon NewsGuild is calling on subscribers to email Publisher John Carr at john.carr@bendbulletin.com and Tim Prince, Carpenter CEO and president at tim.prince@carpentermediagroup.com, in support of giving journalists the pay and working conditions they deserve.
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.
The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local #37082) represents more than 350 workers in Washington, Idaho and Alaska, united in the belief that strong jobs preserve strong journalism in the Northwest.
