High Country News plays a unique role in the West’s news ecosystem, providing our readers with the information you need to take part in important discussions and decisions, while also supporting other news organizations across the region. We see that as part of our job: We want to keep the conversation going.
HCN’s journalists regularly work in partnership with local newspapers, statewide nonprofits and national organizations like ProPublica, Type Investigations and the Food & Environment Reporting Network. And we share our stories freely. In the past 12 months, almost 200 other news outlets republished HCN stories, ranging from the Big Bend Sentinel and the Chilkat Valley News to Grist, Mother Jones and Native News Online.
This year, we expanded our role when we launched the Western Environmental Reporting Collaborative, or WERC, which will put reporters in local newsrooms in 12 states, starting with Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.
Now, we have a new editor who will oversee this program and support our growing constellation of collaborators. Billy Arnold joined us as Partnerships Editor in July, following eight years at the Jackson Hole News & Guide. A music lover and musician himself (he plays the bass), he got a toehold in journalism by freelancing arts and culture stories while working as a ski instructor and bussing tables at the Mangy Moose Restaurant & Saloon. His freelance work led to a job as the News & Guide, first as the arts and culture editor, then as the paper’s government reporter, environmental reporter and eventually managing editor.
Billy says the experience has taught him about the importance of balancing accountability reporting with stories that capture the true character of a community, as well as its connections to the wider world. When a section of Wyoming Highway 22 collapsed in June 2024, cutting off travel over Teton Pass, he interviewed people who had to drive three hours to jobs in Jackson each day from more affordable communities in Idaho. His environmental reporting took him to neighboring Sublette and Lincoln counties to write about pronghorn and mule deer migrations.
“It’s amazing how many people and animals come in and out of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” he said. “I started to see this as one interconnected region rather than Jackson, Bozeman, Cody.”
This firsthand experience in community news was a big part of why we picked Billy from the more than 140 people who applied for the job. The new job, he says, will give him an opportunity to help local newsrooms deepen their environmental coverage, which, at least in this part of the world, is hitched to just about every other topic imaginable.
A contract with our union
We’re happy to report that the management team at High Country News and the HCN Union have signed a first contract. It’s the result of more than a year and a half of negotiations after a dozen HCN employees voted to join the Denver Newspaper Guild in 2024, part of a wave of unionization at news organizations and nonprofits across the country.
The contract enshrines many of the staff’s existing benefits: For example, HCN covers 100% of employees’ health insurance premiums, contributes to their 401k retirement plans, and provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave for folks welcoming a baby into their lives, caring for a loved one, or dealing with a medical issue or an emergency.
It also gives members of the union “bargaining unit” a 4.5% pay increase, a $25 increase in their monthly work-from-home allowance (most HCN employees now work outside of our Paonia, Colorado, office) and more input into our health insurance options and the industry salary surveys that we use to set our pay rates.
The contract also includes clear guidelines and structures for resolving grievances and disputes. Meanwhile, management is assured of our right to continue running the organization in a manner that best advances HCN’s mission.
While the road to a final agreement was rocky at times, the end result is a contract that is clear, balanced and should stand up over time. HCN, and our entire team, are stronger for having gone through it.
We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the August 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Reporting on the West is a team effort.”
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