We, the journalists of the Orlando Sentinel,
are forming a union.

For more than 100 years, Orlando Sentinel journalists have worked to tell the story of Central Florida. As our name reminds all, we keep watch. We hold local leaders accountable, celebrate our region’s triumphs, and reveal its failures. Our sports, arts and culture reporting is unmatched, and our coverage through El Sentinel, Pro Soccer USA and GrowthSpotter demonstrates our commitment to serving all corners of our city.

But as Orlando grows, we are doing more with less. In the last 15 years, our newsroom has shrunk from more than 300 to fewer than 90. The Orlando Sentinel built an award-winning, nationally recognized team with incomparable institutional knowledge and unrivaled connections to Central Florida — and it has been gutted, with senior journalists and talented young reporters pushed out as our corporate management in Chicago and our largest shareholders have been rewarded. In January alone, the Sentinel lost 130 years of journalism expertise.

The return of Nancy Meyer as our publisher and the appointment of Julie Anderson as our editor has proven just how indispensable a vibrant and aggressive Orlando Sentinel is to Central Florida. Under their leadership, we have returned to the kind of watchdog journalism that challenges the powerful and connects our community through insight, knowledge and truth. 

But our future ultimately hinges on the decisions of distant corporate leaders who have hollowed out newsrooms across the country, choosing to leave the communities they are supposed to serve in the dark. Like the other Tribune newspaper unions, we are deeply concerned by the potential takeover of hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Alden has been called the “grim reaper” and “Darth Vader” of the newspaper industry because it harvests its properties for short-term profit and leaves the carcasses to rot.

This union is our way of defending the future of our newsroom — and Central Florida’s access to quality local journalism. 

We must invest in ourselves. With a unified voice, we seek a newsroom that reflects our community with enough journalists to tell its stories. We seek respect for the contributions of our veteran journalists, a path of growth for our early- and mid-career journalists, and stability for all. We seek fair compensation and benefits, a healthy work-life balance and the opportunity to grow professionally. 

By forming this union, we pledge to work with the leadership at the Orlando Sentinel and Tribune Publishing to maintain our highest standards of journalism and our role keeping watch over Central Florida. We are asking Tribune Publishing to voluntarily recognize the Sentinel Guild as a member of The NewsGuild-CWA. 

 In solidarity and with respect, 

 Mike Bianchi

Joe Burbank

J.C. Carnahan

Chabeli Carrazana

Adelaide Chen

Martin E. Comas

Patrick Connolly

Monivette Cordeiro

Ingrid Cotto

Stephen M. Dowell

Sarah Espedido

Trevor Fraser

Austin Fuller

Jason Garcia

Lisa Maria Garza

Ryan Gillespie

Caroline Glenn

David Harris

Chris Hays

Stephen Hudak

Barbara Jay

Matt Murschel 

Annie Martin

Brant Parsons

Joe Mario Pedersen

Julia Poe

Leslie Postal

Amanda Rabines

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda

Cristóbal Reyes

Katie Rice

Gray Rohrer

Gabrielle Russon

Marco Santana

Kate Santich

Mario Sarmento

Tess Sheets

Tiffini Theisen

Grace Toohey

February 25, 2020

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