what newspapers does alden global capital own what newspapers does alden global capital own

But while its true that Alden entered the industry by purchasing floundering newspapers, not all of them were necessarily doomed to liquidation. It will rely initially on philanthropic donations, but he aims to sell enough subscriptions to make it self-sustaining within five years. Knight began selling off its Alden holdings in 2012, and got completely out in 2014. Layout design was outsourced to freelancers in the Philippines. The one central theme, the Times reports, seems to be that Smith and its web of affiliates are out, first and foremost, for themselves. If this reputation bothers Randy and his colleagues, they dont let on: For a while, according to The Village Voice, his firm proudly hangs a painting of a vulture in its lobby. [2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman. It has not, however, retained the Chicago Tribune. He took particular pride in finding novel ways to give away his family fortune, funding child-poverty initiatives in Baltimore and prenatal care for women in Liberia. When hed agreed to the interview, Id expected him to say the things he was supposed to saythat the layoffs and buyouts were necessary but tragic; that he held local journalism in the highest esteem; that he felt a sacred responsibility to steer these newspapers toward a robust future. Reinventing their papers could require years of false starts and fine-tuningand, most important, a delayed payday for Aldens investors. She was writing about Aldens growing newspaper empire, and wanted to know what it was like to be the last news reporter in town. and our desire to support local newspapers over the long term." Alden said it wants to work Lee's board of . Feb 16, 2021 at 8:05 pm. This summer, Alden Global Capital acquired Tribune Publishing and its titles, from small community newspapers to major metro titles like its flagship, The Chicago Tribune, and The Baltimore Sun. Meanwhile, reporters fanned out across their respective cities in search of benevolent rich people to buy their newspapers. At one point, he told me, the citys entire civil-service commission was abruptly fired without explanation; his sources told him something fishy was going on, but he knew hed never be able to run down the story. Tuesday, 23 November 2021 07:46 PM EST. Scott Olson/Getty Images In early 2011, Alden was still considered a non-controlling investor, but by the end of the year, that would change. One early article, in the trade publication Poynter, suggested that Aldens interest in the local-news business could be seen as flattering and quoted the owner of The Denver Post as saying he had enormous respect for the firm. Alden Global Capital already owns 200 publications and a 6% stake in Lee Enterprises. So who is investing with them? The Tampa Bay Times has sold its printing plant at 1301 34th St. N to a real estate arm of Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund that is the second-largest newspaper owner in the country. Now he was feeling the effects of their management. Lee Enterprises, the owner of daily newspapers in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, this morning rejected a hedge fund's proposal to take over the company. For Smith, the Palm Beach conservative and Trump ally, sticking it to the mainstream media might actually be a perk of Aldens strategy. A more honest argument might have claimed, as some economists have, that vulture funds like Alden play a useful role in creative destruction, dismantling outmoded businesses to make room for more innovative insurgents. [7][8] Alden's purchase price was $635 million, or $17.25 per share. Reporters kept reporting, and editors kept editing, and the union kept looking for ways to put pressure on Alden. When the sale failed to attract a sufficiently high offer, Freeman turned his attention to squeezing as much cash out of the newspapers as possible. 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. Misinformation proliferates. All good works, and Knight is to be commended for them. But a sense of fatalism permeated the work. The purchase represents the culmination of Alden's years-long drive to take over the company and its storied titles . Hedge fund Alden Global Capital, known for making deep newsroom cuts, won approval to acquire Tribune Publishing, which includes the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and New York Daily News. With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing earlier this year, Alden now controls more than 200 newspapers, including some of the countrys most famous and influential: the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, the New York Daily News. Year after year, the executives from Alden would order new budget cuts, and Glidden would end up with fewer co-workers and more work. Its a game, Randy explains to his son. ", "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? Next up: Chicago, Baltimore, and the New York Daily News. Instead, they gutted the place. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital will acquire the rest of what it does not already own of Tribune Publishing, owner of the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and other local newspapers . That's because the fund is stepping in to buy and then gut newsrooms across the country. Alden is in the business of making money, not journalism. The pitch had a certain romantic appeal to the reporters in the room. Through it all, the owners maintained their ruthless silencespurning interview requests and declining to articulate their plans for the paper. The papers printing was moved to a plant more than 100 miles outside town, Glidden told me, which meant that the news arriving on subscribers doorsteps each morning was often more than 24 hours old. But I had underestimated how little Aldens founders care about their standing in the journalism world. Before our interview, Id contacted a number of Aldens reporters to find out what they would ask their boss if they ever had the chance. It's traded in a prestigious downtown newsroom for a "Chipotle-sized office" near the printing press. Theres little evidence that Alden cares about the sustainability of its newspapers. If you want to know what its like when Alden Capital buys your local newspaper, you could look to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where coverage of local elections in more than a dozen communities falls to a single reporter working out of his attic and emailing questionnaires to candidates. And two, by at least 2013, those of us who worked at Alden-controlled papers (like me) were already experiencing the slashing and burning. The term vulture capitalism hasnt been invented yet, but Randy will come to be known as a pioneer in the field. It is a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital, the New York City hedge fund that backed the purchase of and dramatic cost-cutting at more than 100 newspapers causing more than 1,000 lost jobs. 'Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys Tribune Papers, Stop The Presses! While some finance reporters noted that Smiths newspaper investments were all losing value, none seemed to notice that Smith and Aldens president Heath Freeman would soon start strip mining their news companies real estate and other assets. Alden's holdings already spanned the country, including the . Some publications, such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune, have developed successful long-term models that Aldens papers might try to follow. Theyre being targeted by investors who have figured out how to get rich by strip-mining local-news outfits. Prior to the acquisition of the Tribune Company, we purchased substantially all of our newspapers out of bankruptcy or close to liquidation, he told me. "[21], shareholder rights plan, colloquially known as a "poison pill", "Alden Global Capital LLC NEW YORK , NY", "Company Overview of Alden Global Capital LLC", "Heath Freeman of Alden Global Capital says he wants to save local news. What happens next? . Smith & Company. After all, it has a long and venerable history of supporting local news. He used his own money to pull court records, and went years without going on a vacation. To replace a paper like the Sun would require a large, talented staff that covers not just government, but sports and schools and restaurants and art. Freeman was only slightly more accessible. . Even as Aldens portfolio grew, Freeman rarely visited his newspapers. Heath Freeman in an undated photo provided by Goldin Solutions . I asked. It has filed a lawsuit in its bid to buy out news publisher Lee Enterprises. We were like, Theyre not going to take our newspaper from us! Russ Smith is a puckish libertarian whose self-described contempt for the journalistic class animates the pages of the publication. A Cornell grad with an M.B.A., Randy is on a partner track at Bear Stearns, where hes poised to make a comfortable fortune simply by climbing the ladder. Im repulsed by the incestuous world of New York journalism, he tells New York magazine. Ken Kelleher is an American sculptor. Coppins notes that there's even some research indicating that city budgets increase as a result, because corruption and dysfunction can take hold without a newspaper to hold powerful people to account. As the months passed, things kept getting worse. City budgets balloon, along with corruption and dysfunction. Spend some time around the shell-shocked journalists at the Tribune these days, and youll hear the same question over and over: How did it come to this? "[17] and Vanity Fair dubbed Alden the "grim reaper of American newspapers. According to its 990s, Knight ended up making $185,000 over five years on its initial $13.4 million investment. After a contentious presidential race and amid a still-raging pandemic, there was a limited supply of outrage and sympathy to spare for local reporters. There were sober op-eds and lamentations on Twitter and expressions of disappointment by professors of journalism. This is the story weve been telling for decades about the dying local-news industry, and its not without truth. So far, Alden has limited its closures primarily to weekly newspapers, but Doctor argues its only a matter of time before the firm starts shutting down its dailies as well. It felt important. A look at Alden Global Capital is the cover story of the latest . But when I emailed his studio looking for information, I was informed curtly that the photo was no longer available. Had Smith bought the rights himself?