Farewell for now | Dec. 10-16, 2025

Dear readers,

After three years and nine months, this is my last week working at Real Change as a staff reporter.

As a look back at this period of my professional life, I feel immensely proud and honored to have been able to do what I love — to write and report on Seattle and its many beautifully complicated communities fighting for fairness, safety and belonging. Over 196 issues, I was able to cover a range of topics, from labor to environmental justice to homelessness to police accountability, in more than 350 articles.

I couldn’t have done it without my amazing editors and fellow staff, vendors and volunteers across Real Change. You pushed me to constantly strive for better. Our newsroom of four definitely punched way above its weight in the Seattle media landscape.

Some of the highlights of my work here were telling the stories of Real Change vendors and others who have lived in poverty or homelessness. We practiced journalism from the ground up, orienting ourselves with the masses while holding the rich and powerful accountable.

Thank you to those in the community who chose our humble paper and entrusted me with their stories. I talked to so many people who had never before been interviewed by a journalist; I hope I made a good impression. As journalists, we should be embedded in our communities, not detached.

I take particular pride in our commitment in the Real Change newsroom to editorial independence and journalistic principles. When many U.S. news outlets shied away from fair and accurate coverage of Palestinians, immigrants and trans people, we leaned in. We remained authentic and passed the mic first to the grassroots — to those who cannot afford to employ public relations professionals or lobbyists.

I’m happy about what I was able to accomplish in my time at Real Change. I contributed to, and later led, our coverage of local and state elections over four cycles, with an emphasis on accuracy and intellectual rigor. Using dozens of public records requests, I created an open database on Seattle’s encampment sweeps and homelessness policies. My coverage of racial equity issues won two awards from the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

I mention this not to brag, but instead to document that our journalism here at Real Change is impactful. We were the first news outlet in Seattle to cover the issue of caste discrimination in South Asian immigrant communities, anticipating a historic new civil rights law. After I wrote about the abrupt cancellation of Nickelsville’s Brighton Village tiny house shelter this March, the city quickly reversed course. Now I am excited to report that the organization has broken ground and expects to start housing its first residents in the new year. Our reporting on the struggles of asylum seekers looking for housing, dignity and fair treatment catalyzed networks between Seattle mutual aid activists and newly arrived migrants.

Over the past four years, our newsroom reached new audiences and piloted different forms of multimedia storytelling across digital platforms. We highlighted perspectives that mainstream or corporate news outlets neglected or refused to platform. Our common throughline was not simply to cover the negative stories of oppression or exploitation, but also the many ways communities were organizing and fighting back, using creative methods to enact their own ingenious solutions.

I am also proud of the internal systems change we have done within Real Change. Together with my colleagues, we organized a union at Real Change for the first time, winning crucial protections, making progress on pay equity and improving leave and holiday benefits. Just this month, I helped write a groundbreaking new generative AI policy, taking a stand against one of the leading threats to journalism in this age.

All this was only possible because of your ongoing support. It’s because our readers want the Real Change newspaper to continue to exist. Last year, I wrote in a fundraising appeal that we are at a crossroads, both as a paper and a nation. We can choose either corporate capture and fascism or people-based democratic institutions. This reflection is even more true today — journalism needs active backing as our revenue streams dwindle and attacks from the far-right increase. If you take one thing away from this letter, let it be to support your favorite journalists so they can keep doing what they love.

I will forever be grateful for Real Change taking a chance on me. This was my first full-time journalism job out of college, and I have grown so much in so many ways. I know the next person who takes this job will be in good hands.

As for what I’m doing? I’m going on vacation, but will be back covering local news soon. The best way to keep up with me is to follow my newsletter Gossip Guy, and I’ll also be active on social media platforms, as always. I’ll be around. 

With gratitude and solidarity,

Guy

Read more of the Dec. 10-16, 2025 issue.