In early 2011, Alden was still considered a non-controlling investor, but by the end of the year, that would change. 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. 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. The scene was somehow even grimmer than Id imagined. But as long as Alden had made back its money, the investment would be a success. To find the papers current headquarters one afternoon in late June, I took a cab across town to an industrial block west of the river. by Magnus Shaw..An enormous advertising company (Leo Burnett) and a small creative film company (Asylum) have had a difficult couple of weeks. In conversations with former Alden employees, I heard repeatedly that their partnership seemed to transcend business. Former Knight-Ridder headquarters.
Module 5- Journalism.pdf - Journalism Modules - The 5 Ws Theres no industry that I can think of more integral to a working democracy than the local-news business, he said. 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. Next year, Bainum will launch The Baltimore Banner, an all-digital, nonprofit news outlet.
The vulture is hungry again: Alden Global Capital wants to buy a few By McKay Coppins. The men killing Americas newspapers, how Slack upended the workplace, and the new meth. 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. 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. Ken Kelleher is an American sculptor. When John Glidden first joined the Vallejo Times-Herald, in 2014, it had a staff of about a dozen reporters, editors, and photographers. "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. Meanwhile, in Vallejo, John Glidden went from covering crime and community news to holding the title of the only hard news reporter in town, filling a legal pad with tips he knew he'd never have time to pursue. 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. Alden is in the business of making money, not journalism.
Digital First Media - Wikipedia What happens next? Instead, the money was used to finance the hedge funds other ventures. But while its true that Alden entered the industry by purchasing floundering newspapers, not all of them were necessarily doomed to liquidation. This investment strategy does not come without social consequences. Its not the name or the flag., He may get his wish. Longtime Tribune staffers had seen their share of bad corporate overlords, but this felt more calculated, more sinister. [13], Newspapers in Alden's portfolio include Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Boston Herald, The Mercury News, East Bay Times, The Orange County Register, and Orlando Sentinel. That gave the journalists at the Sun a brief window to stop the sale from going through. Knight spokesman Andrew Sherry declined to answer any of those questions, saying instead, Our endowment investments support our grantmaking., We invested approximately one half of one percent of our endowment in an Alden fund between late 2009 and early 2014, he said via email. Clearly, for Smith and Freeman, chop-shopping their newspapers paid off. 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. But he couldnt help feeling that the police scandal would have been exposed much sooner if the Sun were operating at full force. It seemed reasonable to ask that they answer a few questions. 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. 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 families that used to own the bulk of Americas local newspapersthe Bonfilses of Denver, the Chandlers of Los Angeleswere never perfect stewards. Well, that wasnt the point. To him, its the same as oil, the publisher said. The show draws from a book written by a Sun reporter, and Simon was quick to point out that the paper still has good journalists covering important stories. He says he visited the Tribune's office and was "really shocked by how grim the scene was." After weeks of back-and-forth, he agreed to a phone call, but only if parts of the conversation could be on background (which is to say, I could use the information generally but not attribute it to him). The 5 global Trends in Journalism: 1 We've moved from a world where media organizations were gatekeepers to a world where media still creates the news agenda, but platform companies control access to audiences 2 this move to digital media generally does not generate filter bubbles Instead automated Serendipity + incidental exposure drive people . Already the largest shareholder . Alden, which has built a reputation as one of the newspaper industry's most aggressive cost-cutters, became Tribune Publishing's largest shareholder in November 2019 and owns a 31.3% stake. 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. It has filed a lawsuit in its bid to buy out news publisher Lee Enterprises. Aldens Distressed Opportunities Fund was launched in 2008 and saw astounding success in its first few months, showing returns of more than 30 percent a big rescue for Alden, whose investments in Russia the year before had lost more than 61 percent of their value. A recent Financial Times analysis found that half of all daily newspapers in the U.S. are controlled by financial firms, and Coppins says that number is all but certain to keep growing. For two men who employ thousands of journalists, remarkably little is known about them. Another ex-publisher told me Freeman believed that local newspapers should be treated like any other commodity in an extractive business. A spokesman took issue with the entirety of the story, and laid out a long list of questions attacking the integrity of the reporter, The Atlantic and some of his sources without addressing some of the more specific claims within the report. Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is asking its shareholders to help it fight off a hostile takeover . [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. The details of how Smith got to know him are opaque, but the resulting loyalty was evident. During its five-year run with Alden, it seems quite unlikely that no one at Knight knew about the hedge funds slash-and-burn strategy for two reasons. Several interim executive positions were also filled by people related to Alden or its parent, Smith Management LLC.[23]. The most promising prospect materialized in Baltimore, where a hotel magnate named Stewart Bainum Jr. expressed interest in the Sun. [4][5] The company added more newspapers to its portfolio in May 2021 when it purchased Tribune Publishing and became the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States. 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?
Fears for future of American journalism as hedge funds flex power 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. ", "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 Launches $142 Million Bid for Publisher Lee Enterprises [2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman. Newspapers Affect Us, Often In Ways We Don't Realize, 'Project Mayhem': Reporters Race To Save Tribune Papers From 'Vulture' Fund. 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. And when Chicago suffered a brutal summer crime wave, the paper had no one on the night shift to listen to the police scanner.
The endorsement debate swings around again - Columbia Journalism Review [32], The company has been criticized for investing money for pensions of newspaper employees in funds it manages itself.
Alden Global Capital seeks to buy Lee Enterprises for $144M My answer is its hard to know. 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 . * Edited from 'independent . 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. 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. Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. I asked Knight about those investments and whether the Foundations officers had any regrets, knowing what we now do about Aldens devastating effect on its own newspapers. And everyone knows its going to run dry.. Lee Enterprises owns 77 daily newspapers, including the Buffalo News, Omaha World-Herald and the Tulsa World.
Live news updates from February 28: Tesla to build Mexico - ft.com Hedge fund Alden in hunt for another big newspaper chain - WKMG The Tribune had been profitable when Alden took over. but sadly on a global scale there is hardly any independent news sources left currently. [2] [3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. Chicago-based Tribune Publishing on Tuesday announced a proposed sale to hedge fund Alden Global Capital in a deal valued at $630 million. We must finally require the online tech behemoths, such as Google, Apple, and Facebook, to fairly compensate us for our original news content, he told me. Smith, a reclusive Palm Beach septuagenarian, hasnt granted a press interview since the 1980s. Alden Global Capital, the New York hedge fund that bought Tribune Publishing this year, said on Monday that it was making an offer for another big American newspaper chain, Lee . 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 . Meanwhile, the Tribunes remaining staff, which had been spread thin even before Alden came along, struggled to perform the newspapers most basic functions.
What Alden's potential acquisition of Lee Enterprises means for 20-plus It makes me profoundly sad to think about what the Trib was, what it is, and what its likely to become, says David Axelrod, who was a reporter at the paper before becoming an adviser to Barack Obama. Knight first reported its investment in Alden in 2010, noting the fair market value of its Alden holdings was $13.4 million.
Opinions - Help yourself. Is it ever okay to nick an idea? Some expressed exasperation with the staff of the Chicago Tribune, who were unable to find a single interested local buyer. Senior lenders under the deal were to swap debt for stock. He writes a weekly column called Mugger that savages the citys journalists by name and frequently runs to 10,000 words. That's because the fund is stepping in to buy and then gut newsrooms across the country. Over the course of seven years, Alden doubled profits in its Bay Area News Group newspapers, another home to cutbacks. Smith & Company. Or to nearby Monterey, where the former Herald reporter Julie Reynolds says staffers were pushed to stop writing investigative features so they could produce multiple stories a day. Im repulsed by the incestuous world of New York journalism, he tells New York magazine.