Matt Pearce is a senior policy advisor for Rebuild Local News and a Los Angeles-based journalist. He is the outgoing president and co-founder of the Media Guild of the West, one of the fastest-growing unions of The NewsGuild-CWA, representing journalists in Southern California, Arizona, and Texas. In this role, he helped shape efforts to secure more than $250 million in new investments for California journalism, including a 2022 push that led to the creation of the UC Berkeley California Local News Fellowship. Pearce also coordinated labor advocacy around two California bills aimed at securing funding for local journalism jobs from major tech companies, resulting in a tentative agreement with Google for a statewide journalist subsidy.
A former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, Pearce contributed to the paper’s 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of racist comments by Los Angeles city officials. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri and received the Sí Se Puede Award from NAHJ and the President's Award from SPJ in 2024 for his press freedom advocacy.