For generations, The Monterey Herald has served as a resource for your community, chronicling readers’ achievements and struggles while standing guard as a watchdog over public servants. But over the years, various owners have chipped away at that resource with layoffs and reductions in size and content. The paper is now owned by billionaire Randall Smith and his vulture hedge fund Alden Global Ca
pital. The New York City-based group, which has incorporated its distressed asset fund in the Cayman Islands, is aggressively selling off The Herald's assets and laying off employees. The staff at the Monterey County Herald, represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild, is fighting to retain the integrity of this community resource. The Herald has lost people who today could and should be serving as the community’s eyes and ears, covering agriculture, water issues and the cities of Monterey County. So much is not being reported because the paper is without resources after years of merciless cuts. In 2005, the newsroom had 12 reporters covering the county. Now, due to layoffs and attrition, six reporters struggle to cover the same beats. All of the copy editors who live and work in our community are now being laid off, their jobs shipped to Chico where your newspaper will be produced from a centralized hub. Reporters are being told the printed newspaper will be our last consideration, to release news in piecemeal fashion for online consumption. Longtime, respected editor Royal Calkins has been replaced by the Santa Cruz Sentinel’s editor, who must run two newsrooms in dissimilar communities. Your community’s editorial page, once tended by Calkins, is now without an editor. And The Herald’s much-beloved entertainment editor, reporter and columnist Mac MacDonald is the latest casualty of this incessant downsizing. All we are asking of the paper’s owners is to invest in The Herald and the employees who bring the news to the communities we serve. For six years, Herald employees have made sacrifices and endured shrinking paychecks because we are committed to bringing the news to our readers. We’ve accepted a wage freeze in our last three-year contract, along with unpaid furloughs that amounted to a 2 percent loss of income for each week furloughed. We're asking nothing more than a modest cost of living increase and a fair severance package for those laid off in the future. The company has refused both. We ask the community to stand by us in this time, out of fairness to Herald employees who strive to produce a quality newspaper for our readers and to defend this community resource. Please “like” our page today and sign our petition (coming soon) asking The Herald’s owners for fair treatment and an investment in you, our community. In the coming days and weeks we’ll be announcing more public actions to highlight our efforts. We invite and urge you to join us.
The Pacific Media Workers Guild of Monterey County represents employees of the Monterey County Herald. Today we are in negotiations for a new contract.
