Cascade PBS workers call newsroom cut unnecessary, ask for support

Unionized journalists at Cascade PBS are protesting layoffs announced by the Seattle-based outlet this week, decrying the elimination of their online newsroom as unnecessary and launching a public pressure campaign.

Members of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild say Cascade PBS is making the wrong choice by shutting down a local news source rather than reducing executive salaries or finding money elsewhere. The outlet is axing nine union journalists, plus nonunion editors and other staffers.

“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,” the Guild and its Cascade PBS members said in a statement Thursday, urging readers and viewers to contact the outlet through an online petition, condemn the layoffs and support union demands for more severance pay.

Cascade PBS formed in 2015 through the merger of public television’s KCTS 9 and the nonprofit news site Crosscut. It blamed federal budget cuts Monday when it said it would slash almost 20 jobs and stop producing long-form written journalism, essentially ending its Crosscut-style coverage.

The outlet is losing $3.5 million annually, about 10% of its operating budget, due to Congress’ defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it said, in arguing it must now narrow its focus to video programming.

The Guild and its journalists questioned that narrative Thursday, partly by pointing to executive salaries not being trimmed. Cascade PBS paid its executives more than $2 million in fiscal year 2024, with CEO Rob Dunlop earning more than $500,000, according to the nonprofit’s most recent tax filing, the Guild noted. Cascade PBS’ net income topped $11 million for that year and it more recently has solicited emergency donations.

On Monday, Dunlop described the layoffs as painful but necessary to sustain Cascade PBS’ core mission. The outlet isn’t reducing pay for remaining employees because it still needs to “attract and retain talent,” it said.

“Executive compensation reductions would not come close to solving the problem,” a Cascade PBS spokesperson added Thursday.

Cascade PBS says most of its consumers “seem to understand the difficult position we are in,” while the Guild’s petition says there’s been “an outpouring of support and anger” from people who value local journalism.