what newspapers does alden global capital own

In early 2011, Alden was still considered a non-controlling investor, but by the end of the year, that would change. The newspaper lost a quarter of its staff to buyouts after it was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May. and our desire to support local newspapers over the long term." Alden said it wants to work Lee's board of . But whats happening in Chicago is different. Another ex-publisher told me Freeman believed that local newspapers should be treated like any other commodity in an extractive business. So who is investing with them? 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 . But within weeks, Bainum said, Alden tried to tack on a five-year licensing deal that would have cost him tens of millions more. In my many conversations with people who have worked with Freeman, not one could recall seeing him read a newspaper. Nov. 22, 2021. In Orlando, the Sentinel ran an editorial pleading with the community to deliver us from Alden and comparing the hedge fund to a biblical plague of locusts. In Allentown, Pennsylvania, reporters held reader forums where they tried to instill a sense of urgency about the threat Alden posed to The Morning Call. 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. These papers would have been liquidated if not for us stepping up.. AP. Glidden, then a mild-mannered 30-year-old, had come to journalism later in life than most and was eager to prove himself. It's a tangled tale but essentially Asylum produced a film for the McDonald's charitable foundation for Leo. Alden, a New York City-based firm that has become the grim reaper of American newspapers, had recently increased its stake in Tribune Publishing to 32%making it the largest shareholder of the . [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. Most responded with variations on the same question: Which recent stories from your newspapers have you especially appreciated? Like many alumni of the Sun, Simon is steeped in the papers history. The audio for this interview was produced by Ryan Benk and edited by Scott Saloway. 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.. Alden currently owns 32%. The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns over 100 newspapers and 200 assorted other publications. 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. 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. With aggressive cost-cutting, Alden can operate its newspapers at a profit for years while turning out a steadily worse product, indifferent to the subscribers its alienating. In May, the Tribune was acquired by Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund that has quickly, and with remarkable ease, become one of the largest newspaper operators in the country. The Tribune Tower rises above the streets of downtown Chicago in a majestic snarl of . 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. Unless the Tribunes trajectory changes, Chicago may soon provide a grim case study. 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. [10] With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in late May 2021, Alden is collectively the second-largest owner of newspapers in the United States, as calculated by average daily print circulation, second only to Gannett. 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. If you're a reader of local newspapers particularly the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun or New York Daily News you're going to want to make sure the answer is yes. Gerry Smith. But most of them also had a stake in the communities their papers served, which meant that, if nothing else, their egos were wrapped up in putting out a respectable product. Read: Local news is dying, and Americans have no idea, From 2015 to 2017, he presided over staff reductions of 36 percent across Aldens newspapers, according to an analysis by the NewsGuild (a union that also represents employees of The Atlantic). 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?. 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. But the group that jumps out to me on the list is the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Vallejo deserves better. A few weeks after the story came out, he was fired. Coppins offers several examples, like the Chicago Tribune and California's Vallejo Times-Herald. Many of the operators were looking at the newspaper business as a local advertising business, he said, and we didnt believe that was the right way to look at it. With full control of Tribune Publishing, Alden Global Capital is scrambling to squeeze out a return on its $600 million investment in the struggling Chicago-based newspaper company. Alden Global Capital has currently bid to buy all of Tribune. Stewart Bainum, since losing his bid for the Sun, has been quietly working on a new venture. But there are some clues here and there. 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. Three days later, Bainumstill smarting from his experience with Alden, but worried about the Suns fatesent a pride-swallowing email to Freeman. 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. For Freeman, newspapers are financial assets and nothing morenumbers to be rearranged on spreadsheets until they produce the maximum returns for investors. Other records turned up from public pension funds and filings of publicly traded companies. 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. [4] [5] The company added more newspapers to its portfolio in May 2021 when it purchased Tribune . 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. 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. Its not the name or the flag., He may get his wish. Layout design was outsourced to freelancers in the Philippines. 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. In the face of that setback, Alden said it would turn to the tactic of filing a proxy statement asking the company's shareholders to vote no on board members Mary Junck and Herbert Moloney during the March 2022 board elections. When John Glidden first joined the Vallejo Times-Herald, in 2014, it had a staff of about a dozen reporters, editors, and photographers. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital is attempting to acquire Davenport-based Lee Enterprises, one of the country's largest newspaper chains, in all the markings of a hostile takeover. 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. A reporter at one of his newspapers suggested I try doorstepping Smithshowing up at his home unannounced to ask questions from the porch. Instead, the money was used to finance the hedge funds other ventures. So why be surprised that Knight-Ridder or anyone else is investing in destructive but profitable ventures? The purchase represents the culmination of Alden's years-long drive to take over the company and its storied titles . Over the course of seven years, Alden doubled profits in its Bay Area News Group newspapers, another home to cutbacks. To David Simon, the whimpering end of The Baltimore Sun feels both inevitable and infuriating. Instead, they gutted the place. NPR's A Martnez talks to McKay Coppins of The Atlantic about how a hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, is buying and then gutting newspapers and the implications for democracy. By Julie Reynolds. (Freeman has, in the past, disputed Bainums account of the negotiations.) The editor in chief mysteriously resigned, and managers scrambled to deal with the cuts. The firm has a history of purchasing newspapers to cut costs wherever . Senior lenders under the deal were to swap debt for stock. They are also defined by an obsessive secrecy. Shortly after the Tribune deal closed earlier this year, I began trying to interview the men behind Alden Capital. You could look to Oakland, California, where the East Bay Times laid off 20 people one week after the paper won a Pulitzer. Feb. 16, 2021 8:04 PM PT. The 1% own and operate the . How do you know who wins? the boy asks. It seemed reasonable to ask that they answer a few questions. So what is this Distressed Opportunities fund? In May, The Alden Global Capital a hedge fund, acquired Tribune Publishing TPCO for $633 million. Youd be surprised. Lee's board of directors . On . G ARY MARX and David Jackson, two veteran investigative reporters at the Chicago Tribune, spent most of last year seeking potential buyers who might save their newspaper from Alden Global Capital . With Alden in control, he believes the Sun is now a prisoner that stands little chance of escape. [12] Lee owns daily newspapers in 77 markets in 26 states, and about 350 weekly and specialty publications. Coordinated by . They were very tight. Freeman has resisted elaborating on his relationship with Smith, saying simply that they were family friends before going into business together. Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that owns The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press in Virginia, has proposed purchasing Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based owner of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and most other major Virginia newspapers, for approximately $144 million, Alden announced Monday. 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. He started as a general-assignment reporter, covering local crime and community events. Freeman was only slightly more accessible. The newspaper lost a quarter of its staff to buyouts after it was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May. The pitch had a certain romantic appeal to the reporters in the room. Tuesday, 23 November 2021 07:46 PM EST. Newspapers Affect Us, Often In Ways We Don't Realize, 'Project Mayhem': Reporters Race To Save Tribune Papers From 'Vulture' Fund. "[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. Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that owns the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, offered to buy Lee Enterprises Inc. for about $142 million, seeking a larger share of the . There were sober op-eds and lamentations on Twitter and expressions of disappointment by professors of journalism. 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. 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, in a . The men killing Americas newspapers, how Slack upended the workplace, and the new meth. 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. Well, he told me, they have some very good reporters., This article appears in the November 2021 print edition with the headline The Men Who Are Killing Americas Newspapers., A Secretive Hedge Fund Is Gutting Newsrooms, I Dont Know That I Would Even Call It Meth Anymore, W. G. Sebald Ransacked Jewish Lives for His Fictions. Some of these papers likely would have been liquidated if the fund had not stepped in to buy them, as Alden's president told Coppins. We were like, Theyre not going to take our newspaper from us! Misinformation proliferates. I asked if anyone there at the time was aware of Aldens vulture business strategy. People who know him described Freemanwith his shellacked curls, perma-stubble, and omnipresent smirkas the archetypal Wall Street frat boy. The rationale offered by the board was, Consistent with its fiduciary duties, Lees Board has taken this action to ensure our shareholders receive fair treatment, full transparency and protection in connection with Aldens unsolicited proposal to acquire Lee. Tips that he would never have time to investigate piled up on a legal pad he kept at his desk. Aldens calculus was simple. The Denver Post has become the face of this struggle, due to an editorial published in its own pages lashing out against owners, New York-based 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. [2] [3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. Margaret Sullivan: The Constitution doesnt work without local news. Ken Kelleher is an American sculptor. The Ubiquity - The student news site of Quartz Hill High School Knight first reported its investment in Alden in 2010, noting the fair market value of its Alden holdings was $13.4 million. John Temple: My newspaper died 10 years ago. Lee Enterprises owns 77 daily newspapers, including the Buffalo News, Omaha World-Herald and the Tulsa World. The specific shareholder rights plan adopted by the Lee board forbids Alden from purchasing more than 10% of the company, and will be in force for one year. We were in collective revolt, Lillian Reed, a Sun reporter who helped organize the campaign, told me. [2][3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. The story of Alden Capital begins on the set of a 1960s TV game show called Dream House. 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 . If accepted, the $24 per share purchase price would . That might sound like a losing formula, but these papers dont have to become sustainable businesses for Smith and Freeman to make money. 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. In its bid to acquire Tribune Publishing, the hedge fund Alden Global Capital vowed to provide $375 million in cash to the owner of the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other titles a . Read: What we lost when Gannett came to town. About a month after The Baltimore Sun was acquired by Alden, a senior editor at the paper took questions from anxious reporters on Zoom. 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.. I knew they almost never talked to reporters, but Randall Smith and Heath Freeman were now two of the most powerful figures in the news industry, and theyd gotten there by dismantling local journalism. In truth, Freeman didnt seem particularly interested in defending Aldens reputation. [4], Alden purchased a 5.9-percent stake in Lee Enterprises in January 2020. When the journalists created a Slack channel to coordinate their efforts across multiple newspapers, they dubbed it Project Mayhem.. Financially, it was a raw deal. Have you heard of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital? 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. 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. Reporters kept reporting, and editors kept editing, and the union kept looking for ways to put pressure on Alden. Alden is in the business of making money, not journalism. Im worried the worst is yet to come. 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. Reinventing their papers could require years of false starts and fine-tuningand, most important, a delayed payday for Aldens investors. Well, that wasnt the point. NPR reached out to Alden for a response. But as long as Alden had made back its money, the investment would be a success. The $633 million sale made Alden the nation's second largest newspaper owner in terms of circulation, with more than 200 newspapers. Theres no industry that I can think of more integral to a working democracy than the local-news business, he said. It was clear that they didnt care about this being a business in the future. 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.. But for that to happen, the Big Tech money would need to flow to underfunded newsrooms, not into the pockets of Aldens investors. Those that have survived are smaller, weaker, and more vulnerable to acquisition. When the city-hall reporter left a few months later, he picked up that beat too. 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. Glidden had heard rumblings about the papers owners when he first took the job, but he hadnt paid much attention. Alden Global Capital swallowed all of the Tribune's newspapers, including the New York Daily News, earlier in 2021. Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is asking its shareholders to help it fight off a hostile takeover . Freeman, his 41-year-old protg and the president of the firm, would be unrecognizable in most of the newsrooms he owns. He scores big with a bankrupt aerospace manufacturer, and again with a Dallas-based drilling company. But it turned out that Smith had so many doorsteps16 mansions in Palm Beach alone, as of a few years ago, some of them behind gatesthat the plan proved impractical. It has filed a lawsuit in its bid to buy out news publisher Lee Enterprises. The newsroom was moved to a single room rented from the local chamber of commerce. By McKay Coppins. Am I going to win against capitalism in America? In legal filings, Alden has acknowledged diverting hundreds of millions of dollars from its newspapers into risky bets on commercial real estate, a bankrupt pharmacy chain, and Greek debt bonds. 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? But for all the theatrics, his marching orders were always the same: Cut more. 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. It hurts to see the paper like this, he told her. Baltimore is an underdog town, Liz Bowie, a Sun reporter who was at the meeting, told me. Frustrated and worn out, Glidden broke down one day last spring when a reporter from The Washington Post called. Knight began selling off its Alden holdings in 2012, and got completely out in 2014. Updated May 21, 2021 at 2:13 PM ET. In February 2021, he announced a handshake deal to buy the Sun from Alden for $65 million once it acquired Tribune Publishing. This company that owns us now seems to still be prettyI dont even know how to put it, the editor said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Atlantic. But he couldnt help feeling that the police scandal would have been exposed much sooner if the Sun were operating at full force. Feeling burned by the hedge fund, Bainum decided to make a last-minute bid for all of Tribune Publishings newspapers, pledging to line up responsible buyers in each market. This is predatory.. The final product, completed in 1925, was an architectural spectacle unlike anything the city had seen beforeromance in stone and steel, as one writer described it. In conversations with former Alden employees, I heard repeatedly that their partnership seemed to transcend business. Joe Pompeo pilloried Alden in Vanity Fair for reducing newsrooms. 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. Heath Freeman in an undated photo provided by Goldin Solutions . Research shows that when local newspapers disappear or are dramatically gutted, communities tend to see lower voter turnout, increased polarization, a general erosion of civic engagement and an environment in which misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread more easily. Others pointed to Bainums financing partner, who pulled out of the deal at the 11th hour. "[17] and Vanity Fair dubbed Alden the "grim reaper of American newspapers. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. 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, in a . The New York-based hedge fund Alden Global Capital - known for slashing its newspapers' budgets to extract escalated profits - won shareholder approval Friday for its $633 million bid to acquire the Tribune Publishing newspaper chain.. He declined to meet me in person or to appear on Zoom. Freeman was clearly aware of his reputation for ruthlessness, but he seemed to regard Aldens commitment to cost-cutting as a badge of honorthe thing that distinguished him from the saps and cowards who made up Americas previous generation of newspaper owners. [4], In 2019, Alden attempted, but failed at, a hostile takeover of Gannett. But maybe the clearest illustration is in Vallejo, California, a city of about 120,000 people 30 miles north of San Francisco.

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