You could look to Oakland, California, where the East Bay Times laid off 20 people one week after the paper won a Pulitzer. These papers were in many cases left for dead by local families not willing to make the tough but appropriate decisions to get these news organizations to sustainability.
Lee blocks Alden Global Capital move for more board control - STLPR They want to know who exactly profits when we learn, as Harvard Nieman Lab's Ken Doctor recently reported, that the firm netted $160 million last year from its Digital First Media . In the ensuing exodus, the paper lost the Metro columnist who had championed the occupants of a troubled public-housing complex, and the editor who maintained a homicide database that the police couldnt manipulate, and the photographer who had produced beautiful portraits of the states undocumented immigrants, and the investigative reporter whod helped expose the governors offshore shell companies. Theyre being targeted by investors who have figured out how to get rich by strip-mining local-news outfits. Collectively, they control about one-half of daily newspapers in the U.S. Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund known for gutting local newsrooms, is seeking to buy Lee Enterprises (LEE), a publicly traded company with a chain of daily newspapers and other publications . But whats happening in Chicago is different. Its not the name or the flag., He may get his wish. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital, one of the country's largest newspaper owners with a reputation for intense cost cuts and layoffs, has offered to buy the local newspaper chain Lee Enterprises . Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. The new owners had announced a round of buyouts, some beloved staffers were leaving, and those who remained were worried about the future. As the months passed, things kept getting worse. After college he worked at Hudson Studio, Art Foundry in Niverville, NY . Its the meanness and the elegance of the capitalist marketplace brought to newspapers, Doctor told me. A vulture doesnt hold a wounded animals head underwater. A look at Alden Global Capital is the cover story of the latest . Randy claims no editorial role in the Press, and his investment in the projectwhich has little chance of producing the kind of return hes accustomed tocould be chalked up to brotherly loyalty. We were like, Theyre not going to take our newspaper from us! We were in collective revolt, Lillian Reed, a Sun reporter who helped organize the campaign, told me. Caleb will later recall, in an interview with D Magazine, asking his dad why he works so hard. Its a hedge that went and bought up some titles that it milks for cash.. The $633 million sale made Alden the nation's second largest newspaper owner in terms of circulation, with more than 200 newspapers. When The New York Times profiles him in 1991, it notes that he excels at profiting from other peoples misery and quotes a parade of disgruntled clients and partners.
Live news updates from February 28: Tesla to build Mexico - ft.com Theres little evidence that Alden cares about the sustainability of its newspapers. At the time, finalternatives.com reported that the Global Distress Opportunities fund would focus on financial firms as well as homebuilding, gaming and auto-related names.. When the journalists created a Slack channel to coordinate their efforts across multiple newspapers, they dubbed it Project Mayhem.. but sadly on a global scale there is hardly any independent news sources left currently. Margaret Sullivan: The Constitution doesnt work without local news. "[26] Shortly thereafter, Alden Global, through its operating unit Strategic Investment Opportunities, filed a lawsuit in state court in Delaware against Lee Enterprises. When lawmakers pressed for details last year on who funds Alden, the company replied that there may be certain legal entities and organizational structures formed outside of the United States.. For Smith, the Palm Beach conservative and Trump ally, sticking it to the mainstream media might actually be a perk of Aldens strategy. [22] The appointees to the MediaNews board were replaced by new directors representing the stockholders group led by Alden Global Capital. So who is investing with them? He quotes H. L. Mencken, the papers crusading 20th-century columnist, on the joys of journalism: It is really the life of kings. But for all the theatrics, his marching orders were always the same: Cut more. It turned out that those ownersNew York hedge funders whom Glidden took to calling the lizard peoplewere laser-focused on increasing the papers profit margins. Russ Smith is a puckish libertarian whose self-described contempt for the journalistic class animates the pages of the publication. He said that he still appreciated their journalism, but that he couldnt speak for his corporate bosses. About a month after The Baltimore Sun was acquired by Alden, a senior editor at the paper took questions from anxious reporters on Zoom. To many, it just didnt seem possible that Alden would instead choose to destroy newspapers by laying off the workforce en masse and stripping papers of all their assets. In a news release Monday, Alden said it sent Lee's board a letter with the offer. He writes a weekly column called Mugger that savages the citys journalists by name and frequently runs to 10,000 words. "A lot of cities almost operate with the assumption that there will be at least one local newspaper, in some cases several local newspapers, acting as a check on the authorities," he says. Im repulsed by the incestuous world of New York journalism, he tells New York magazine. ", "Denver Post Rebels Against Its Hedge-Fund Ownership", "Tribune Says Sale to Alden Wins Approval Amid Confusion Over Key Shareholder's Vote", "Lee Enterprises Shares Jump on Takeover Offer From Alden", "The vulture is hungry again: Alden Global Capital wants to buy a few hundred more newspapers", "Colorado Group Pushes to Buy Embattled Denver Post From New York Hedge Fund", "The battle for Tribune: Inside the campaign to find new owners for a legendary group of newspapers", "Is this strip-mining or journalism? Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. They call Alden a vulture hedge fund, and I think thats honestly a misnomer, Johnson said. Chicago-based Tribune Publishing on Tuesday announced a proposed sale to hedge fund Alden Global Capital in a deal valued at $630 million. In May 2021, Tribune Publishing finalized its sale to Alden, after having announced in February 2021 that it intended to pursue this path. As a privately held hedge fund, Alden doesnt have to reveal much to the public. I asked if anyone there at the time was aware of Aldens vulture business strategy. Most of his investments are defined by a cold pragmatism, but he takes a more personal interest in the media sector. Like many alumni of the Sun, Simon is steeped in the papers history. But he says the worst culprit is the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, which bought the Mercury in 2011 and has since sold the paper's building and slashed newsroom staff by about 70%. Reporters kept reporting, and editors kept editing, and the union kept looking for ways to put pressure on Alden. Clearly, for Smith and Freeman, chop-shopping their newspapers paid off.
'Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys Tribune Year after year, the executives from Alden would order new budget cuts, and Glidden would end up with fewer co-workers and more work. But for that to happen, the Big Tech money would need to flow to underfunded newsrooms, not into the pockets of Aldens investors. In truth, Freeman didnt seem particularly interested in defending Aldens reputation. In the Hyatt meeting, Ted Venetoulis, a former Baltimore politician, advised the reporters to pick a noisy public fight: Set up a war room, circulate petitions, hold events to rally the city against Alden. After serving in the Carter administrations Treasury Department, Brian became widely knownand fearedin the 80s for his hard-line negotiating style. In the for-profit news arena, Knight is spurring the digital transformation of local newsrooms through the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, Sherry said.
Alden Global Capital - Wikipedia All good works, and Knight is to be commended for them. So I was more than a little shocked to learn that, according to its tax filings, Knight had invested $13 million with Aldens Distressed Opportunities Fund by 2010 and kept investing through 2014. John Temple: My newspaper died 10 years ago. "The question is, will local communities decide that this is an important issue, that it's worth saving these newspapers, protecting them from firms like Alden, or will they decide that they don't really care?" More to the point, Tribune Publishingwhich represents a substantial portion of Aldens titleswas profitable at the time of the acquisition. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith.
'Sobs, gasps, expletives' over latest Denver Post layoffs", "The Hedge Fund Vampire That Bleeds Newspapers Dry Now Has the Chicago Tribune by the Throat", "How Massive Cuts Have Remade The Denver Post", "Newsonomics: By selling to Americas worst newspaper owners, Michael Ferro ushers the vultures into Tribune", "A Secretive Hedge Fund Is Gutting Newsrooms", "Affiliated Media Files for Bankruptcy to Restructure (Update2)", "The shakeup at MediaNews: Why it could be the leadup to a massive newspaper consolidation", "Alden Global Capital to buy Tribune in deal valued at $630 million", "Lee Enterprises Enacts Poison Pill to Guard Against Alden Takeover", "Lee Enterprises Board Rejects Alden's Acquisition Offer", "Alden Global Capital takes Lee Enterprises to court over failed board nominations", "Alden Global Capital sues Lee Enterprises after rejected takeover bid", "Alden Global Capital loses lawsuit to nominate its slate of candidates for Lee Enterprises' board", "Lee Enterprises shareholders reelect three directors amid hedge fund fight", "Tampa Bay Times sells printing plant to developer for $21 million", "A hedge fund's 'mercenary' strategy: Buy newspapers, slash jobs, sell the buildings", "The hedge fund trying to buy Gannett faces federal probe after investing newspaper workers' pensions in its own funds", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alden_Global_Capital&oldid=1130942589, This page was last edited on 1 January 2023, at 19:27. [15][16] In March 2018, Margaret Sullivan, the media columnist for The Washington Post, called Alden "one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism. by Magnus Shaw..An enormous advertising company (Leo Burnett) and a small creative film company (Asylum) have had a difficult couple of weeks. Prior to the buildings completion, McCormick directed his foreign correspondents to collect fragments of various historical sitesa brick from the Great Wall of China, an emblem from St. Peters Basilicaand send them back to be embedded in the towers facade.