what newspapers does alden global capital own

At the time, the Sun had a bustling bureau in Annapolis, and he marveled at the reporters ability to sort the honest politicians from the political whores by exposing abuses of power. Chicago-based Tribune Publishing on Tuesday announced a proposed sale to hedge fund Alden Global Capital in a deal valued at $630 million. "And what we've seen in a lot of these places where newspapers have been scaled back or even closed is there really is no comparable product in place, whether it's by the government or by another news organization, to do what these local newspapers have done for hundreds of years.". Who is investor Randall Smith and why is he buying up newspaper companies, deep losses to Alden funds overall values, Denver Post newsroom workers invoke Thirst Amendment to raise awareness about conditions under Alden, Pittsburgh newspaper workers are making history, The NewsGuild urges public pension funds to divest from Cerberus, NewsGuild to Lee Shareholders: Reject Aldens Vote No Campaign. "[34], In October 2021, The Atlantic examined the impact of Alden's acquisition of the Chicago Tribune, noting that, "The new owners did not fly to Chicago to address the staff, nor did they bother with paeans to the vital civic role of journalism. Two veteran journalists from the Chicago Tribune published an op-ed on Sunday challenging one of the paper's principal owners, the New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Newspapers Have Been Struggling And Then Came The Pandemic - Forbes On the surface, the answer might seem obvious. Rapid-fire changes underway at newspapers sold to cost-slashing hedge fund Alden Global Capital have led to a profound case of the jitters at newsrooms like the New York Daily News. My question was did Knight know what Alden was doing to newspapers when it invested with the hedge fund, and does it regret that investment now? Some in the industry say they wouldnt be surprised if Smith and Freeman end up becoming the biggest newspaper moguls in U.S. history. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital in hunt for Lee Enterprises newspaper A group of 11 community newspapers owned by Red Wing Publishing Co. have been sold to MediaNews Group, owner of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and more than 100 newspapers across the country. Theres little evidence that Alden cares about the sustainability of its newspapers. Today, half of all daily newspapers in the U.S. are controlled by financial firms, according to an analysis by the Financial Times, and the number is almost certain to grow. Alden Global Capital swallowed all of the Tribune's newspapers, including the New York Daily News, earlier in 2021. Probably not.. Soon, Tribune-owned newsrooms across the country were kicking off similar campaigns. The firm has a history of purchasing newspapers to cut costs wherever . Lee's board of directors . Alden's holdings already spanned the country, including the . The scene was somehow even grimmer than Id imagined. According to its 990s, Knight ended up making $185,000 over five years on its initial $13.4 million investment. Newspapers Affect Us, Often In Ways We Don't Realize, 'Project Mayhem': Reporters Race To Save Tribune Papers From 'Vulture' Fund. To be sure, the Knight Foundation does much to help promote and sustain local news. But in the case of local news, nothing comparable is ready to replace these papers when they die. But beneath all the recriminations and infighting was a cruel reality: When faced with the likely decimation of the countrys largest local newspapers, most Americans didnt seem to care very much. This is a subscription-based business.. Russ Smith is a puckish libertarian whose self-described contempt for the journalistic class animates the pages of the publication. Unless the Tribunes trajectory changes, Chicago may soon provide a grim case study. After college he worked at Hudson Studio, Art Foundry in Niverville, NY . 'Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys Tribune When Alden first started buying newspapers, at the tail end of the Great Recession, the industry responded with cautious optimism. Many in the journalism industry, watching lawsuits play out in Australia and Europe, have held out hope in recent years that Google and Facebook will be compelled to share their advertising revenue with the local outlets whose content populates their platforms. Daily News spinoff stirs anxiety after Alden takeover - New York Post With Alden in control, he believes the Sun is now a prisoner that stands little chance of escape. Somehow, no one's buying it. More to the point, Tribune Publishingwhich represents a substantial portion of Aldens titleswas profitable at the time of the acquisition. [29] This attempt also failed, as shareholders returned both directors to the Lee board despite Alden's opposition. 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. Hedge fund Alden's bid to buy Chicago Tribune, other papers approved by The Tribune Tower rises above the streets of downtown Chicago in a majestic snarl of . Who Profits From Alden Global Capital? You'd be surprised. Smith & Company. They had a father-figure relationship, one told me. Earnest and unpolished, with a perpetually mussed mop of hair, Bainum presented himself as a contrast to the cutthroat capitalists at Alden. This investment strategy does not come without social consequences. To David Simon, the whimpering end of The Baltimore Sun feels both inevitable and infuriating. 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 . In a press release Monday, Nov. 22, 2021 Alden said it sent Lee's board a letter with the offer. PDF GateHouse Media Alden Global Capital Tribune Media McClatchy Lee Hedge fund Alden in hunt for another big newspaper chain - WKMG The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns over 100 newspapers and 200 assorted other publications. The endorsement debate swings around again - Columbia Journalism Review From the March 1914 issue: H. L. Mencken on newspaper morals, A story circulated throughout the companypossibly apocryphal, though no one could say for surethat when Freeman was informed that The Denver Post had won a Pulitzer in 2013, his first response was: Does that come with any money?. If you went into a lab to create the perfect bro, Heath would be that creation, says one former executive at an Alden-owned company, who, like others in this story, requested anonymity to speak candidly. Alden Global Capital is buying and gutting local newspapers : NPR - NPR.org But outside the industry, few seemed to notice. The consequences can influence national politics as well; an analysis by Politico found that Donald Trump performed best during the 2016 election in places with limited access to local news. But maybe the clearest illustration is in Vallejo, California, a city of about 120,000 people 30 miles north of San Francisco. "60 Minutes" correspondent Jon Wertheim did a strong piece that aired Sunday night about the grim state of local newspapers, in part because of how hedge funds, such as Alden Global Capital . What threatens local newspapers now is not just digital disruption or abstract market forces. With his own money, he helps his brother launch the New York Press, a free alt-weekly in Manhattan. Im worried the worst is yet to come. But for that to happen, the Big Tech money would need to flow to underfunded newsrooms, not into the pockets of Aldens investors. In February 2021, he announced a handshake deal to buy the Sun from Alden for $65 million once it acquired Tribune Publishing. Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is asking its shareholders to help it fight off a hostile takeover . A former Sun reporter whose work on the police beat famously led to his creation of The Wire on HBO, Simon told me the paper had suffered for years under a series of blundering corporate ownersand it was only a matter of time before an enterprise as cold-blooded as Alden finally put it out of its misery. 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 . He started as a general-assignment reporter, covering local crime and community events. [4], Alden purchased a 5.9-percent stake in Lee Enterprises in January 2020. 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. Theyre being targeted by investors who have figured out how to get rich by strip-mining local-news outfits. When plans for the building were announced in 1922, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime owner of the Chicago Tribune, said he wanted to erect the worlds most beautiful office building for his beloved newspaper. Convinced that the Sun wont be able to provide the kind of coverage the city needs, he has set out to build a new publication of record from the ground up. Layout design was outsourced to freelancers in the Philippines. Hedge fund reaches $630m deal to buy remaining Tribune Publishing The California Public Employees Retirement System, a few European banks, and Citigroup and Coca Cola Companys pension funds have all invested in Alden, along with charities such as the Circle of Service Foundation and the Alfred University Endowment. Researchers at the University of North Carolina found that Alden-owned newspapers have cut their staff at twice the rate of their competitors; not coincidentally, circulation has fallen faster too, according to Ken Doctor, a news-industry analyst who reviewed data from some of the papers. [2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman. 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%. For Freeman and his investors to come out ahead, they didnt need to worry about the long-term health of the assetsthey just needed to maximize profits as quickly as possible. The details of how Smith got to know him are opaque, but the resulting loyalty was evident. Freemans father, Brian, was a successful investment banker who specialized in making deals on behalf of labor unions. I felt like a terrible reporter because I couldnt get to everything.. [2] [3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. Pioneer Press owner buys 11 more Minnesota papers - Star Tribune '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. The practical effect of the death of local journalism is that you get what weve had, he told me, which is a halcyon time for corruption and mismanagement and basically misrule.. 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 for . At the time, even savvy media insiders like Martin Langeveld wistfully predicted Alden would keep newspapers future in mind: Smith knows that the only way to win his big bet on the future of newspapers is to turn them into nimble, modern digital news enterprises.. Already the largest shareholder . Hedge fund Alden Global Capital in hunt for big newspaper chain Lee Hes acutely aware of the risksI may end up with egg on my face, he saidbut he believes its worth trying to develop a successful model that could be replicated in other markets. 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. Meanwhile, the Tribunes remaining staff, which had been spread thin even before Alden came along, struggled to perform the newspapers most basic functions. Alden completed its takeover of the Tribune papers in May. The shows premise pits two couples against each other for the chance to win a home. In conversations with former Alden employees, I heard repeatedly that their partnership seemed to transcend business. Alden is known for . Reading these stories now has a certain horror-movie quality: You want to somehow warn the unwitting victims of whats about to happen. (Freeman has, in the past, disputed Bainums account of the negotiations.) Fears for future of American journalism as hedge funds flex power New York hedge fund and U.S. newspaper consolidator Alden Global Capital LLC has made a proposal to take Lee Enterprises Inc. private in a deal that values the company at around $141 million. He was fired after criticizing Alden in a Washington Post interview. Its the meanness and the elegance of the capitalist marketplace brought to newspapers, Doctor told me. To industry observers, Aldens brazen model set it apart even from chains like Gannett, known for its aggressive cost-cutting. Alden Launches $142 Million Bid for Publisher Lee Enterprises We were like, Theyre not going to take our newspaper from us! For those who cared about the future of local news, it was hard to imagine a better outcomewhich made it all the more devastating when the bid fell through. Today, we know that Knight, CalPERS and others no longer invest with Alden. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Hedge Fund Alden in Hunt for Another Big Newspaper Chain [6][7][8][9], The company operates its media holdings through Digital First Media (DFM), which it acquired in 2010 after DMG's parent company, MediaNews Group, declared bankruptcy. * Edited from 'independent . 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. "[25], In early December, the board of Lee unanimously rejected the Alden bid, saying that the Alden proposal "grossly undervalues Lee and fails to recognize the strength of our business today. It was clear that they didnt care about this being a business in the future. According to Aldens scarce SEC filings, it currently has fewer than 10 investors, most of them from overseas. But who most of those few souls are, and how much of the hundreds of millions skimmed from DFM papers theyve received remains a deep, dark mystery. Or to Denver, where the Posts staff was cut by two-thirds, evicted from its newsroom, and relocated to a plant in an area with poor air quality, where some employees developed breathing problems. When Simon called me, he was on the set of his new miniseries, We Own This City, which tells the true story of Baltimore cops who spent years running their own drug ring from inside the police department. 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. The Tribune Tower, the iconic former home of the Chicago Tribune, seen in Chicago, Illinois in 2015. . A quarter of the newsroom (including many big-name reporters, columnists and photographers) took the buyouts Alden offered, and while some great reporters remain on staff, it's nearly impossible for them to fill those gaps, Coppins says. Its not as if the Tribune is just withering on the vine despite the best efforts of the gardeners, Charlie Johnson, a former Metro reporter, told me after the latest round of buyouts this summer. I sort of bully people around to get stuff done, he boasted to The Washington Post in 1985. After a long walk down a windowless hallway lined with cinder-block walls, I got in an elevator, which deposited me near a modest bank of desks near the printing press. The Tribune Company (which owns the newspapers mentioned above) was still turning a profit when Alden bought it, but the hedge fund immediately offered aggressive rounds of buyouts and shrunk its newsrooms in the name of increasing profit margins. [4][13], In November 2021, Alden made an offer to Lee to purchase the company in its entirety for roughly $141 million. As a reporter whos covered Alden Global Capital for more than two years, people often ask me who are the investors behind the hedge fund that owns one of Americas largest newspaper chains? In truth, Freeman didnt seem particularly interested in defending Aldens reputation. Alden Capital's gutting of the Denver Post is the most discussed example of this, but there are many others. In addition to the constant layoffs, our buildings were being sold, basic office supplies became scarce and the hot water stopped working. A young man named Randall Duncan SmithRandy for shortstands next to his wife, Kathryn, answering quick-fire trivia questions in front of a live studio audience. That gave the journalists at the Sun a brief window to stop the sale from going through. It's a tangled tale but essentially Asylum produced a film for the McDonald's charitable foundation for Leo. 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. Other large shareholders include Californian asset manager Capital Group and UK fund manager Jupiter Asset Management. 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. They are also defined by an obsessive secrecy. 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. . Craigslist killed the Classified section, Google and Facebook swallowed up the ad market, and a procession of hapless newspaper owners failed to adapt to the digital-media age, making obsolescence inevitable. The pitch had a certain romantic appeal to the reporters in the room. After congratulating him on closing the deal, Bainum said he was still interested in buying the Sun if Alden was willing to negotiate. The Hedge Fund Vampire That Bleeds Newspapers Dry Now Has the 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? When John Glidden first joined the Vallejo Times-Herald, in 2014, it had a staff of about a dozen reporters, editors, and photographers. by Magnus Shaw..An enormous advertising company (Leo Burnett) and a small creative film company (Asylum) have had a difficult couple of weeks. Meanwhile, with few newsroom jobs left to eliminate, Alden continued to find creative ways to cut costs. The Tribune Tower rises above the streets of downtown Chicago in a majestic snarl of Gothic spires and flying buttresses that were designed to exude power and prestige. (Freeman denied this characterization through a spokesperson. Aldens calculus was simple. . [2][3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. This Is How a Newspaper Dies - POLITICO Magazine After a powerful Illinois state legislator resigned amid bribery allegations, the paper didnt have a reporter in Springfield to follow the resulting scandal. He quotes H. L. Mencken, the papers crusading 20th-century columnist, on the joys of journalism: It is really the life of kings. On the appointed afternoon, I dialed the number provided by his spokesperson and found myself talking to the most feared man in American newspapers. The men killing Americas newspapers, how Slack upended the workplace, and the new meth. Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. Year after year, the executives from Alden would order new budget cuts, and Glidden would end up with fewer co-workers and more work. Alden Global Capital revealed a proposal Monday to purchase Lee Enterprise Inc. and its newspapers at $24 a share, casting alarm through the many newsrooms owned by Lee. Alden Global Capital Is Killing the Newsroom - Common Dreams About a month after The Baltimore Sun was acquired by Alden, a senior editor at the paper took questions from anxious reporters on Zoom. MediaNews Group came out of bankruptcy in March 2010 under the majority ownership of its lenders. He said that he still appreciated their journalism, but that he couldnt speak for his corporate bosses. You have no way of knowing that if you dont have some nosy son of a bitch asking a lot of questions down there, he told me. ), Crucially, the profits generated by Aldens newspapers did not go toward rebuilding newsrooms. The vulture is hungry again: Alden Global Capital wants to buy a few But as an organization that believes that quality information is essential for individuals and communities to make their own bestchoices, it was disappointing that the foundation couldnt simply own up to its error in judgment when it came to Alden. He teaches his 8-year-old son, Caleb, to make trades on a Quotron computer, and imparts the value of delayed gratification by reportedly postponing his familys Christmas so that he can use all their available cash to buy stocks at lower prices in December. But this acquisition was profound, making Alden Global . Baltimore is an underdog town, Liz Bowie, a Sun reporter who was at the meeting, told me. Its a game, Randy explains to his son. (PDF) Extractive Imperialism in the Americas | henry veltmeyer He stops talking to the press, refuses to be photographed, and rarely appears in public. It was like watching a slow-motion disaster, says Gregory Pratt, a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. Longtime Tribune staffers had seen their share of bad corporate overlords, but this felt more calculated, more sinister. Two days after the deal was finalized, Alden announced an aggressive round of buyouts. and our desire to support local newspapers over the long term." Alden said it wants to work Lee's board of . He gained 100 pounds and started grinding his teeth at night. The hollowing-out of the Chicago Tribune was noted in the national press, of course. Iowa-based Lee Enterprises asks investors to help fight off hedge fund Alden Global Capital. When a local newspaper vanishes, research shows, it tends to correspond with lower voter turnout, increased polarization, and a general erosion of civic engagement. As a reporter who's covered Alden Global Capital for more than two years, people often ask me who are the investors behind the hedge fund that owns one of America's largest newspaper chains?. Orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft a closely watched proxy for business investment, rose 0.8 per cent in January from a month earlier, comfortably above economists .

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