Our Mission

The Daily Herald’s tradition of suburban excellence began with its founding in 1872, continued as an employee-owned company starting in 2018, and lives on following our purchase by Tribune Publishing and Alden Global Capital in June 2026. 

By standing together now to form a union, our veteran writers, editors and photographers – many with more than 30 years of experience with the Daily Herald -- aim to build on that tradition by protecting our newsroom from the forces threatening our employees and our industry in general. 

News deserts are becoming all too common across the country. A vibrant local news source like the Daily Herald, the third-largest newspaper in Illinois, is a suburban institution that should continue to serve a critical role as the trusted voice and paper of record in Chicago’s North, Northwest and West suburbs. 

For decades our newsroom has been decimated by staff reductions, wage reductions, benefits reductions and other detrimental factors that severely hampered our ability to do the work we’ve loved for more than 150 years. Work that is crucial to being watchdogs of local government, and work that’s integral to showcasing and documenting the stories of our neighbors as a reflection of the communities where we live. 

For too long decisions have been made about our working conditions with little to no input from us, the ones bearing the responsibility of consistently producing an award-winning daily newspaper. With an organized workforce of editorial employees, we are committed to gaining a seat at the table to help sustain our newsroom and cultivate talent for the future growth of the Daily Herald. 

We want to join our siblings at the Chicago Tribune and Suburban papers as members of the Chicago News Guild Local 34071 TNG-CWA.

We request voluntary recognition from Tribune Publishing. We are filing a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, but are happy to withdraw this petition should you voluntarily recognize us. 

In alignment with other papers under the Tribune Publishing umbrella, through fair negotiations we plan to increase job security and protect our rights to basic benefits that include: 

-- Sustainability through manageable workloads, appropriate staff levels, general newsroom investments, opportunities for career growth and a vision that leads to a future free of the many threats to our job security such as AI and staff reductions that prevent us from maintaining our status as the newspaper of record in Chicago’s North, Northwest and West suburbs. 

-- Pay equity that recognizes the experience, expertise and overall value of our entire editorial staff through fair base compensation and reasonable raise schedules in line with our peers at the Chicago Tribune and its suburban newspapers. 

-- Transparency by allowing us a seat at the table when decisions are made that impact us as employees. Open communication is critical to a newspaper’s basic function, and we expect that across all departments in a respectful way. 

Signed, the following super majority of Daily Herald union-eligible staff: 

Christine Gerke, Community Reporter 

Brian Hill, Senior Photographer 

Ana Hinkhouse, Senior Editorial Designer 

John Lemon, High School Sports Editor 

Joseph Lewnard, Senior Photographer 

Russell Lissau, Senior Reporter 

Michael McGraw, Sports Columnist 

David Oberhelman, Reporter 

Eric Peterson, Senior Reporter 

Christopher Placek, Senior Reporter 

Carolyn “Marni” Pyke, Senior Reporter 

Susan Sarkauskas, Senior Reporter 

Kevin Schmit, Associate Editor 

John Starks, Senior Photographer 

Barbara Vitello, Senior Reporter 

Rick West, Senior Reporter 

Steven Zalusky, Senior Reporter 

Adam “Mick” Zawislak, Senior Reporter 

Luke Zurawski, Community News Coordinator