While outside of our usual area, we feel the need to address the ongoing union action against The Seattle Times over proposed staff reduction due to Generative AI, as well as what is seen as a lack of transparency with the public.
One of the defining reasons for the founding of our paper was the simple idea that “Print media is not dead.” We still hold that true to this day, even with our website and digital editions, the print edition is the primary concern of everyone involved. We also feel that Marysville was betrayed by large corporations that bought up local papers such as The Globe, and the Arlington Times, and shut them down without so much as an announcement after they ceased operations, leaving the city in the news desert it had been during COVID and the mid-2020s. At the present moment, there are only three city newspapers north of Everett not owned wholly by Carpenter Media Group, a company over 1,000 miles away, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The Concrete Herald, The Mill Creek View, and of course, The Voice of the Mountain (the Pinewood Neighborhood also has a bi-monthly newsletter, The Pinewood Neighbor). While it may seem like a good thing for business that we are the only paper in the city, we believe it is a great shame on the industry in the area that it has to be this way. No one in our team has any formal training in journalism, we are simply citizens helping other citizens be informed.
Because of this, we urge those fighting for fair wages, basic respect, and better working conditions at The Seattle Times to keep up the pressure, and not give up hope. Not with any malice towards The Times as a publication, but that those in the industry understand these simple facts:
Print media is not dead, to say so is to discount the thousands of readers every day that do not have access to the internet.
Journalism is a public service, not a business.
Generative AI has no place in the news.
In continued solidarity, The Voice of the Mountain Team