Tribune Publishing union journalists have been fighting for a fair contract for nearly five years. In that time frame, the journalists have covered essential news, bringing to light government corruption, explaining complicated policy reforms, relaying important updates about weather, schools and the COVID-19 pandemic and providing insightful commentary on movies, food and culture.

We're bargaining with Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund that has been dubbed by the media as the “destroyer of newspapers” for its systemic practice of diminishing newspapers in order to extract outsized profits. We are comprised of journalists from the Chicago Tribune, the suburban Chicago Tribune publications, the Orlando Sentinel, the Hartford Courant, the Virginian Pilot/Daily Press, the Allentown Morning Call, the Design and Production Studio that designs the papers and the Tribune Content Agency. We bring essential local news to communities spanning from the Midwest to the South to the East Coast.

The value local media brings to communities has been well documented: Studies show that losing access to fair and reliable news sources is correlated with increased costs to taxpayers, more corruption and increased political polarization.

We want to continue to be a community resource for years to come -- and are fighting for a fair contract that would allow journalists to afford to live in the communities they cover and provide protections against the hedge fund gutting its newspapers until there's nothing left.

We need your help in preserving quality local news for the communities served by our publications. Please write to company officials to tell them why you appreciate your local newspaper and demand that they finally agree to a fair contract.

Thanks as always to our loyal readers!