Snopes, the Internet’s oldest dedicated fact-checking organization, announces intent to unionize

Workers at Snopes, the Internet’s oldest dedicated fact-checking organization, are looking to verify their management’s commitment to transparency. Snopes Guild announced its launch on June 30, with 80% of the organization’s eligible staffers signing cards in favor of representation by Media Guild West. 

Snopes Guild will represent the 31-year-old organization’s editorial staff. Guild members say they’re organizing around greater transparency, pay equity, job security, and more formal HR processes. Their intent to unionize is the latest in digital news workers seeking greater parity in their workplaces, whether through organizing unions or starting worker-owned newsrooms. 

“It was amazing how quickly we organized, and it was amazing how united everyone was,” reporter Nur Ibrahim said. “I would say in a matter of a couple of weeks, we had a majority.”

She added that unionizing is a way to protect both current and future Snopes workers, especially as fact-checking in a political climate rife with misinformation has led to hate mail in response to Snopes stories. 

“If Snopes has people from different backgrounds, different legal statuses in the country be a part of this fact-checking world, we want to make sure that they are protected and feel safe speaking up,” she said. “We’re doing this for anyone and everyone who’s going to be a part of Snopes, and because we believe in the truth, and the truth is what we rely on as we begin this unionization process.”

Another area where workers would like to enshrine more protection is the newsroom’s remote status. Web producer Izz LaMagdeleine is deeply connected to their family’s Southern roots, and says they’re “very Southern.”

“I’m very [much] someone who really takes pride in that, and so being able to stay remote is something that’s super, super important to me,” they said.

Snopes started in 1994 as a home for fact-checking urban legends and now offers the same due diligence to a wide span of topics, from artificial intelligence to the current presidential administration. It underwent a full-throated ownership change in 2022 after a tumultuous legal dispute over the company’s ownership. Former Salon owners and tech entrepreneurs Chris Richmond and Drew Schoentrup fully acquired the site after first acquiring a 50% share in the company with a small group in 2016. 

“We did get a lot of stability and security, [more] than I’d seen before — it was a very positive thing when they came in,” Ibrahim said. “We were able to then see the room for growth and the room for Snopes really becoming better.”

The organization is also distinct as a widely known commercial fact-checking newsroom. Many major fact-checking initiatives in the U.S. are housed in other educational institutions: the KSJ Fact Checking Project is housed at MIT, while FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Politifact is tied to The Poynter Institute, which houses the International Fact-Checking Network. 

Snopes workers are following in the footsteps of other digital-only newsrooms that have sought to unionize. Workers at progressive newsroom Truthout were the first to unionize at an online-only news site in 2009. And unionization across other similar workplaces was further galvanized by unionization at now-defunct Gawker Media, considered the first major online media company to organize, in 2015. 

Salon, also a digital-only shop, organized the same year: The Salon Union was voluntarily recognized by management in 2015 before Richmond and Schoentrup purchased the company and ratified its third contract earlier this year.

“Snopes writers are the lifeblood of this project,” organizers wrote in a mission statement sent to management quoted in the NewsGuild press release. “In forming a union, we join a historic tradition in the fight for labor rights worldwide and are poised to become one of the first dedicated fact-checking newsrooms to engage in collective action.”

There are several newsrooms with fact-checking units that do have union representation, including the Associated Press. 

“We’re certainly not the first group of fact-checkers who have been unionized, but we are probably among the first who are just a dedicated fact-checking organization,” Ibrahim said.

Snopes Guild is currently seeking voluntary recognition from CEO Richmond, CFO Schoentrup, executive editor Doreen Marchionni, and director of accounting Amber Marsowicz. The Objective reached out to Richmond for comment but did not hear back at the time of publication. 

The choice to seek voluntary recognition is rooted in workers’ appreciation for Snopes’ culture of openness and transparency, Ibrahim said. 

“We have a deep love for our editors who we work with every single day — they’re a very solid team who have often spoken up for us, who have been very kind to us, who have often helped us in very difficult stories,” she said. “We want to ensure that this process will help us build trust between all these teams, and the goal is for us to really all be able to openly speak at the same table.”

The guild has set a July 14 deadline for management’s response. 

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Update, July 2, 3:40 p.m.: This story was updated to reflect the union’s extension of its voluntary recognition deadline for management, which was originally on July 7, and to clarify Richmond and Schoentrup no longer own Salon.

James Salanga is the co-director of The Objective and the podcast producer for The Sick Times.

LaMagdeleine was formerly a contributor for The Objective. They did not review this story prior to publication. This story was edited by Jen Ramos Eisen.