Guild in Seattle Votes to Sever Ties to Citizens Group

By: E&P Staff By a nearly two-to-one margin, Newspaper Guild members at the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer voted Saturday to sever all ties to the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town, the supposed citizens group that
recently won a big court victory against the feuding joint operating agreement (JOA) partners.

Because the committee was in many ways a creation of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which was its biggest funder, the future of the group was uncertain Sunday.

The vote was reported Sunday in the Times by staff reporter Eric Pryne and in the P-I by reporter Dan Richman.

The committee's co-chair, Anne Bremner told the Times that the group "isn't going anywhere" despite the Guild's withdrawal. "Seattle is a city of philanthropists," Bremner told the Times. "I'm optimistic, given that I've heard nothing but support for this cause."

To date, the union has been the source of $31,000 of the approximately $37,500 the committee has raised since its creation in 2003, the P-I reported.

The Guild local vote to sever ties with the committee was 70 to 38.