You can read my letter to the editor in support of the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild here (it has been updated to include information about cuts at The Recorder and my work at The Berkshire Eagle):

A public letter to Aaron Julien, president of Newspapers of New England, and Mike Rifanburg, publisher

You should recognize the Pioneer Valley NewsGuild (the union recently formed by  employees at The Daily Hampshire Gazette and The Valley Advocate) immediately and bargain with its members in good faith.

These journalists know how to make your newspapers strong. 

Decisions made under your management in the last year to cut local news staff at all the region’s papers under NNE ownership have led to a blistering decline in reader support, and worsening conditions for the most dedicated journalists who remain. There has been a serious and noted drop in quality news coverage across topics, including local government and the arts.

Recent cuts at The Greenfield Recorder have done severe damage to that newsroom

and the local operations in Franklin County, including circulation and advertising. There is no longer a night desk there.

Your purchase of the Athol Daily News and slashing of that staff has imperiled another local newspaper necessary to the towns it serves.

This has been a long time coming. Employees approached management on numerous occasions, and worked long hours in good faith to try to make the best of horrible plans.

As so eloquently observed in the Declaration of Independence “all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

These journalists are fighting to save these papers, and they have learned they are not alone. 

Now they are offering you the opportunity to join them in that effort.

Supporting this union now will bring the most qualified people into the room. Western Massachusetts deserves good local news coverage. Every community does.

Show some respect and humility, and look to the people who know best how to do this work.

Sincerely,

Samantha Wood

former managing editor for news of The Berkshire Eagle, former managing editor of The Daily Hampshire Gazette, and former longtime editor on the night desk at The Greenfield Recorder