More negotiations with media company to come later this month
Skagit County journalists may have ended their strike last week, but the bargaining is far from over.
Following a unanimous vote in favor of striking against newspaper management, the eight unionized workers from the Skagit Valley Herald, Anacortes American and Stanwood Camano News left their desks and took to the streets starting on Friday, July 24, and continued into the weekend.
Their demands? For Adams MultiMedia, the Minnesota-based company that owns the three newspapers, to pay the college-educated journalists an hourly minimum wage of $20 with raises and to incorporate guidelines concerning AI usage in the newsroom.
Contract negotiations between the company and members of the Skagit Valley Newsguild, a unit of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, have been ongoing since the end of 2025, according to Chair Vince Richardson, who is also a longtime Skagit Valley Herald reporter. It’s the first strike that Herald news workers have participated in.
“In my 23 years here, it never got to this point,” Richardson said. “We always were able to find some common ground and this time we couldn’t.”
The previous contract signed in 2022 accounted for a 2% increase each year over a period of four years, but that does not come close to reaching the threshold of $20 per hour that the journalists are requesting. When negotiations for the new contract started about nine months ago, the company’s opening offer was a 0% raise, according to Richardson. Since then, it’s inched up to 2%, but it’s not enough to keep up with the cost of living.
“We’re not asking for the moon,” Richardson said. “We’re just asking to be paid a living wage.”
Deb Brooks, the HR Manager for the Western Division of Adams MultiMedia, said in a statement that the company has bargained and will continue to bargain “in good faith” with the guild for a contract in Skagit. She noted a similar proposal regarding AI was accepted earlier this year by the Denver Newspaper Guild at papers in Bozeman, Montana, and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Skagit Valley Herald Publisher Rebecca Poynter did not respond to a request for comment.
The Skagit journalists in the union currently earn between $19.10 and $22.29 per hour, with Richardson making the top of that range. He acknowledged he wouldn’t be able to continue reporting, however, without the help of his wife’s earnings.
“I could not afford to do this job here if I did not have a second income,” he said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Skagit County’s median household income as of 2024 was $89,263.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, younger journalists who have graduated from college in the last few years and just started their careers are finding it difficult to stay afloat financially because of the low wages, with some taking on second jobs to make rent or pay student loans.
Cameron Martinez started at the Skagit Valley Herald in a full-time position in 2025, but has been trying to pick up a second job. They previously worked in fast food while reporting for the Stanwood Camano News and the Anacortes American. Fortunately, rent is low at the condo they share with their fiancée, but the commute from Bellingham is starting to take a toll.
“It’s so much on my car, and I can’t afford these repairs,” Martinez said.
Despite previous experience at the Stanwood/Camano and Anacortes papers, they earn the lowest amount in the beginner pay bracket. As their 26th birthday approaches, they are also bracing for the additional costs associated with obtaining their own health insurance plan.
Martinez noted it was nice to get to know some of the Herald’s readers who showed their support during the strike.
“Obviously none of us wanted to strike, none of us wanted to put our editors through that,” they said. “To see the community response that we got, that we’re still getting, it really made me feel, OK, I’m doing the correct thing, I am valued.”
The other looming concern remains the use of AI-generated content, which has appeared in other publications owned by Adams MultiMedia. Earlier this year, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle published the “musings” of an AI columnist named Bo Zangeles. Martinez recalled it was not a popular choice, judging by the comments section.
Martinez also pointed to the company’s use of an AI platform called Stringr, which compiles videos using information from articles written by reporters and photos taken by visual journalists. Such a video has appeared on the Ellensburg Daily Record’s website as recently as April.
Richardson is equally concerned about the company’s usage of AI so far and what that might look like if implemented at the Skagit Valley Herald.
“The fear is that they will replace reporters with AI,” he said.
On July 27, the striking journalists — seven reporters and one copy editor — met with a representative from Adams MultiMedia to negotiate the contract. Unable to reach a deal, the strike continued for an additional day.
Though staff members of the three newspapers are now back to work, more negotiations are on the horizon. If an upcoming meeting in August doesn’t result in a deal, the journalists may be prepared to strike again, Richardson confirmed. This and other updates have been shared on the Skagit News Workers Facebook page run by the journalists.
“The company expects that negotiations in Skagit will eventually result in a labor agreement acceptable to both parties, hopefully sooner than later,” Brooks stated.
—By Kira Erickson