Support Journalists Mel & Ju-Hyun After Layoffs

In April 2025, The Real News Network informed the guild unit of their plans to lay off two employees, journalist Mel Buer and engagement editor Ju-Hyun Park—roughly 25% of our bargaining unit. Mel and Ju-Hyun are top-tier journalists who have also consistently been involved in community organizing to expand workers' rights. It's been a tough year for the journalism industry, and we're torn by the job loss of our colleagues who have been taking this layoff in stride.

Ju-Hyun Park is the former engagement editor at The Real News. Their writing on US militarism, art and culture, and Korean politics can be found at The Real News, Truthout, People’s Dispatch, Public Radio International, Counterpunch, and other outlets. Ju-Hyun is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Mel Buer is a former staff reporter at The Real News covering the US labor movement, progressive politics, and national and international activist movements, and co-hosted The Working People Podcast, a radio-syndicated show about the lives and struggles of the working class. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Democracy Now! and others. She currently lives in Chicago.

In addition to the bargained severance, we are organizing this fundraiser to provide as much of a runway for them as possible as they re-enter the news media job market. Your contributions will go directly to our two stellar colleagues who need financial assistance with their bills and expenses.

I'm a reporter at TRNN who will help disburse the funds. This fundraiser is being administered independently from our local union, the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild, and its parent union, The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America.

Thank you for your continued support.

In solidarity,

The Real News union