CARBONDALE, Ill. (WSIL) -- There aren't many news reporters in southern Illinois with Marilyn Halstead's experience.
After nearly 34 years covering thousands of stories, Halstead finds herself at the center of one, something no journalist wants to do.
But Halstead, like many at The Southern Illinoisan, feels it's a story worth reading.
"I think it's important that they hear from the faces they know," Halstead said. "We're southern Illinoisans just like all of our readers and all of your viewers."
After buying the paper in 1979, owner Lee Enterprises decided to sell The Southern last month to Paxton Media Group, a Paducah-based company founded more than a century ago.
PMG, according to from the Unions of Lee Enterprises, decided to let go of the paper's 10 journalists and editors once its purchase was finalized.
In response, the Unions of Lee Enterprises filed a grievance which pauses the purchase and questions Lee Enterprises' motives behind the sale. Halstead believes the sale fails to protect the union and its members.
"They sold it as an asset. So it's like somebody selling their kitchen table," Halstead said.
The grievance argues Lee Enterprises failed to follow the successorship language established in the union's collective bargaining agreement.
Once settled, 10 reporters and editors with over 80 years of combined experience will be gone.
"And for our readers I feel really bad because anytime a newspaper changes there are issues," Halstead said. "We've covered a lot of important stories and I don't know if someone with little experience would do that."
Halstead believes it will take time for the paper to rebound as new reporters establish their credibility in the community.
"As a journalist you build up sources and people who will talk to you over years of work," Halstead said. "Some people won't talk to anyone but me."
Halstead says their last day was originally November 24, Black Friday. The grievance bought them at least another week of work. What happens next is anyone's guess.
"Everything is up in the air. We don't have a closing date. We don't know for sure how long we'll be working," Halstead said. "It's kind of hard to plan or to look at different positions when you don't have some of those answers."
The pending sale has Halstead pondering her next move with just a few years left until retirement. Halstead plans to stay in journalism, a job that's in her DNA.
Her father once owned and ran newspapers across southern Illinois while her grandfather worked for The Paducah Sun, Paxton Media Group's flagship newspaper.
"I like to write. I like meeting new people," Halstead said.
The union also filed an unfair labor charge against Paxton Media Group for anti-union animus. Paxton Media Group and Lee Enterprises haven't responded to News 3's requests for comment.
United Media Guild, which represents The Southern's statement, provided the full text of the grievance to News 3:
“The United Media Guild (Union), on behalf of the Union-represented employees at the Southern Illinoisan/Lee Enterprises (Company), hereby grieves a violation of the terms of the parties� 2022-2024 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), including but not limited to Article XXVII, Section 4 (the successors and assigns clause), based on the Company’s failure to ensure that the terms of the CBA would be assumed by the asset purchaser of the Company, as a term and condition of the Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) entered into between the Company and the asset purchaser. To be clear, any and all other terms of the CBA are violated as well, in the Company’s failure to require the buyer’s future assumption of and adherence to those contract terms, upon the closing of the APA.�
