The nonprofit poised to take over The Spokesman-Review at the end of October plans to keep suspended executive editor Rob Curley in a leadership role, drawing renewed opposition from the newspaper’s union.
Curley was suspended by the Spokesman in August as the paper was preparing to transfer ownership to a nonprofit he founded, Comma Community Journalism Lab. But as InvestigateWest and RANGE reported on Oct. 2, newsroom workers have raised alarm about alleged retaliation and ethical breaches and whether Curley is fit to lead the newspaper's transition into a community-supported nonprofit venture. Comma board leadership told union members that Curley would oversee the philanthropic side of the business and also keep a seat on the board, according to an Oct. 20 statement by the Spokane Editorial Society, the collective bargaining unit for nonexempt newsroom employees.
“We strongly reject this decision. Scores of current and former employees showed the courage to either speak with investigators hired by Cowles Publishing or give quotes to local media about their adverse interactions with Curley over his 10-year tenure as editor,” the union said. “Those statements carry weight.”
Thomas Clouse, the union president and a longtime Spokesman-Review reporter, said the union is refusing to consider any potential offer letters to work for Comma until they see their future benefits package and an explanation of Curley's new role in writing.
Comma’s board chair, George Brunt, disputed the union’s description of Curley’s new role but would not say what Curley’s involvement with Comma will be. Spokesman-Review Publisher William “Stacey” Cowles, who agreed last year to transfer ownership of the newspaper to Comma, did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s unclear if Curley has accepted the role overseeing philanthropy. He did not respond to a request for comment. Clouse said Curley is out on a Disney boat cruise through the end of this week.
Comma quietly responds
Results of the internal investigation into personnel complaints against Curley have not been made public, though the newsroom union said they’ve been told that investigation found no “harassment or discrimination.”
More than a dozen current or former Spokesman-Review staffers told InvestigateWest and RANGE they had concerns about Curley’s journalistic integrity when coverage risked angering Comma donors or powerful community figures. They also detailed workplace complaints about lewd and sexual comments by Curley or Ron Sylvester, a Comma editor. On Tuesday, the union said that reporting represented “just a handful” of the concerns with Curley’s leadership, and that his “10-year tenure with the newspaper has been nothing but challenging for the journalists in the newsroom.”
Tensions boiled over in August, when Curley tried to fire Spokesman-Review reporter Alexandra Duggan, after she had a verbal altercation with Sylvester, who reporters say had been editing articles without permission. Then-managing editor Lindsey Treffry refused to fire Duggan, and following a series of meetings the next day, Cowles suspended Curley and hired an attorney to conduct an internal investigation.
Curley and his lawyer have declined to answer questions about the allegations or the circumstances surrounding his suspension.
Sylvester has been scrubbed from Comma’s website, and Brunt confirmed Tuesday that he was no longer an employee with Comma. Hours after the Oct. 2 article, then-board chair Bill Simer resigned, though Comma did not make a formal announcement about the change. Brunt, who took over as chair, said Simer’s resignation the day of the article was a “coincidence.”
Simer said in text messages that his resignation was a “personal decision” that “shouldn’t be misinterpreted as an indication that I don’t support this vision.” But he stopped short of expressing confidence in Curley’s leadership when asked by a reporter.
“I continue to believe in the strategy and vision that Rob Curley developed for community supported journalism. Building a strong board of directors and experienced leadership team was part of that strategy, and I continue to support it,” he said.
A number of Comma donors have pressured the board to answer questions about the paper’s transfer to Comma, the nonprofit’s finances and the investigation into Curley.
One prominent donor, Ron Reed, sent a letter to Cowles and Spokesman-Review staff saying that Curley was integral to him and his wife’s continued support of Comma. He vowed to walk away with their money if Curley was removed as the Spokesman's executive editor.
Reed also said the Oct. 2 article raised serious allegations and, without more transparency from Comma about the investigation and its findings, the public will only hear one side of the story.
Now over two months after Curley's suspension, the community remains in the dark about details of the internal investigation's findings.
“It’s very frustrating,” Reed said during a phone call. “After everything that’s been talked about in the public, I’m not sure how anybody could consider that being a suitable resolution or outcome of this.”
Reed said his continued support depends on who will be “steering the ship” at Comma and if the vision aligned with what he signed on to support.
“There is no transparency right now with anything,” he said.
In the days since newsroom concerns about Curley became public, the nonprofit quietly updated its website’s “Frequently Asked Questions” page to seemingly address some of the criticism raised in the news article.
One question added to the page asked,“What is Comma’s approach to news coverage that seems critical of Comma partners and supporters?”
“The Spokesman-Review’s journalistic independence is sacred — it is central to our mission. Under no circumstances do we support or condone interfering with journalistic content,” the response said. “Comma is building a culture of transparency and integrity in journalism by promoting accuracy, impartiality, and balance in news reporting for the public good.”
In its statement, the newsroom union said it opposes “any scenario that would allow Rob Curley to have a say in any future hiring and firing decisions of newspaper staff.” Last week, union members unanimously voted no confidence in the Comma board of directors if it decided to retain Curley in any capacity. Since the board members were initially chosen by Curley, they could later reinstate Curley “into the very role where he created a hostile work environment,” according to the statement.
The union is backing Treffry, who has served as acting executive editor during Curley’s suspension, to lead the newsroom. But newsroom employees say they still do not know who will be their boss when ownership of the paper is transferred in 10 days. They’ve also been told that there will be no severance offered to employees who choose not to work for Comma.
Comma finances
Comma was billed as a way to transform the 143-year-old institution into the “People’s Paper,” relying on philanthropy and community funding and less on advertising. Though newsroom employees say they believe in the overall vision, they’re worried about Comma’s ability to sustainably fund a newsroom.
The paper had previously pointed to several “community-funded reporters” — paid for by Comma’s philanthropy efforts — as evidence that the model could work. But newsroom staffers had previously shared with InvestigateWest and RANGE that after Curley’s August suspension, they were told that none of the paper’s reporters were currently “community funded,” a major blow to their confidence in the plan.
In an interview Tuesday, Brunt said Comma had raised enough money to pay for those community-funded reporters, but that the Spokesman-Review had made a “business decision” not to pay them with money raised through philanthropy.
“It wasn’t because of a lack of funds from Comma,” Brunt said. “We’re very confident in our ability to continue to operate the paper business as usual.”
The union has also raised concerns about lawsuits involving Comma co-founder and executive director Scott de Rozic. De Rozic had his Comma wages garnished in late April for consumer debt of over $28,000 he owed Velocity Investments after the company purchased his debt, according to a Spokane County District Court document.
“We have concerns going to work for an organization that’s being led by someone who shows that he’s had trouble managing his own finances without legal intervention,” Clouse said. “We’ve raised this to both the publisher and George Brunt.”
Brunt, in an interview Tuesday, said he wasn’t concerned and the garnishment “didn’t change anything about how funds were used.”
“It doesn’t give me any level of concern about him or his fitness to continue in his role,” Brunt said.
Brunt, who previously worked for law firm Lee & Hayes in Spokane, previously represented one of de Rozic’s other business ventures, Olympio Inc, a short-lived nutritional supplement company that dissolved in 2024 after the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee challenged the company’s attempt to register its name.
Another company called Midas Brands, co-founded by de Rozic, also faces a federal lawsuit alleging it failed to pay a $300,000 loan. PML Gold, the Washington-based company that is suing Midas, also alleges that Midas backdated a letter stating that the money it owed had been converted into shares of stock and without the notification required under their contract. Midas countersued, arguing it was PML who breached their agreement.
De Rozic from 2018 to 2022 was also the chief operating officer and president of a Spokane-based software company called CloudEngage, which Cowles Company has invested in.
Clouse said donors will want to know that the money they’re sending to an organization is being managed responsibly.
“Those court cases would create a lot of questions in my mind,” Clouse said.
De Rozic did not respond to requests for comment.
Brunt said moving forward, both the newsroom and everyone at Comma will have to work together to build a local journalism organization that the community can trust.
“I get it. I get the changes are scary.” Brunt says. “It’s a process, and we are looking to come together after the transition and really prove not with our words, but with how we operate, that Comma and the Comma board is trustworthy and takes its stewardship really seriously.”
InvestigateWest (investigatewest.org) is an independent news nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. RANGE is a worker-owned newsroom covering Spokane and the greater Inland Northwest. Contact Wilson Criscione at wilson@investigatewest.org and Daisy Zavala Magaña at daisy@rangemedia.co.
