McClatchy Cuts 90+ Union Staff Across 17 Newspapers

For HR and workforce leaders, McClatchy's chainwide reduction is more than a media story—it is a high-stakes case in restructuring 17 separate workforces under a union contract. With roughly 30% of NewsGuild-CWA-represented employees cut and key language desks wiped out, the move raises urgent questions about severance, bumping rights, survivor engagement, and whether local newsrooms can function after losing this much institutional knowledge.

McClatchy, one of the largest local newspaper chains in the United States, is closing out a turbulent summer with a sweeping unionized workforce reduction. According to The NewsGuild-CWA, more than 90 unionized journalists and media workers across 17 publications have been laid off, representing roughly 30 percent of all McClatchy employees represented by the union. The cuts fell across some of the chain's most prominent newsrooms, including The Sacramento Bee, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Miami Herald was among the hardest hit, with 32 total job actions—28 positions eliminated and four more frozen—including the entire writing staff of El Nuevo Herald, the McClatchy-owned Spanish-language publication that serves South Florida's large Hispanic community.

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The cuts fell across some of the chain's most prominent newsrooms, including The Sacramento Bee, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Carol Marbin Miller, deputy investigations editor at The Miami Herald, described the situation in stark terms, telling The Associated Press that staff are "waist-deep in the quicksand and we are still sinking." Miller, who was not personally affected by the layoffs, said she spoke out to emphasize the dire state of the paper. She stressed Miami's importance as Florida's largest city and a linchpin in a critical electoral state, arguing that she "can't imagine any scenario in which Miami no longer has a vibrant, powerful news outlet." A McClatchy spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, and some details about the Miami cuts came from a person familiar with the situation who spoke anonymously.

The layoffs are not an isolated event. The U.S. newspaper industry has been shrinking for roughly two decades, first under pressure from the internet and the collapse of classified advertising, then from audience fragmentation driven by social media and changing reader habits. Many operators have reduced or eliminated print editions to cut costs. Media advocacy groups have long warned that each round of cuts removes "eyes of accountability" from local communities and weakens oversight of government and institutions. The McClatchy reduction, affecting 17 separate publications at once, demonstrates how a single corporate decision can degrade journalism capacity across multiple states in a single afternoon.

From a labor and organizational perspective, the cut of 30 percent of unionized staff is a severe structural change, not a marginal trim. Unionized journalists and media workers—often among the most experienced and institutional memory-rich employees—are disproportionately represented in these layoffs. Eliminating the entire writing staff of El Nuevo Herald points to a retreat from serving non-English-speaking audiences, which carries both community representation and market reach consequences. The fact that four Miami Herald positions were frozen rather than eliminated signals that the company may be managing costs through attrition and hiring freezes as well as direct terminations.