In the past 15 years, more than a quarter of American newspapers have gone out of business. Even in a declining industry, the newspapers still generated hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues; many of them were turning profits. The pay was terrible and the work was not glamorous, but Glidden loved his job. 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. 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 . This was the core of Freemans argument. [22] The appointees to the MediaNews board were replaced by new directors representing the stockholders group led by Alden Global Capital. Alden, which owns more than 200 newspapers across the country, has developed a reputation for using extensive layoffs and severe cost cuts at the newspapers it owns. To be sure, the Knight Foundation does much to help promote and sustain local news. He studied art at Alfred University under sculptors Glenn Zweygardt and William Parry. The purchase represents the culmination of Alden's years-long drive to take over the company and its storied titles . 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. But in the meantime, there isn't really anything that can fill the hole these newspapers will leave if they're shut down. For Smith, the Palm Beach conservative and Trump ally, sticking it to the mainstream media might actually be a perk of Aldens strategy. The details of how Smith got to know him are opaque, but the resulting loyalty was evident. The paper had weathered a decade and a half of mismanagement and declining revenues and layoffs, and had finally achieved a kind of stability. "[17] and Vanity Fair dubbed Alden the "grim reaper of American newspapers. This all seemed especially relevant considering many Alden/DFM papers were previously part of the Knight-Ridder chain, the family news empire from which the foundation sprang. But there are some clues here and there. One conclusions even these reporters are hesitant to make is that we are all dealing within a capitalist system which has none, or few, principles to guide itself, apart from making a profit, no matter how. 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? 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. 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.. That's because the fund is stepping in to buy and then gut newsrooms across the country. All good works, and Knight is to be commended for them. "[18], Alden received critical coverage from the editorial staff at the Denver Post, who described Alden Global Capital as "vulture capitalists" after multiple staff layoffs. Instead, they gutted the place. 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. I felt like a terrible reporter because I couldnt get to everything.. 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. But the group that jumps out to me on the list is the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. So what is this Distressed Opportunities fund? 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.. One acquaintance tells The Village Voice that hes the kind of guy who divests himself every couple of years to avoid ending up on lists of the worlds richest people. Alden, which took Chicago-based newspaper chain Tribune Publishing private in May, said it made a proposal to buy Lee for $24 a share in cash, a 30% premium to Friday's closing price for . 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. Eventually he was the only news reporter left on staff, charged with covering the citys police, schools, government, courts, hospitals, and businesses. 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. Reporters kept reporting, and editors kept editing, and the union kept looking for ways to put pressure on Alden. But years later, when Randy relocates to Palm Beach and becomes a major donor to Donald Trumps presidential campaign, it will make a certain amount of sense that his earliest known media investment was conceived as a giant middle finger to the journalistic establishment. [13], In response, the board of Lee Enterprises enacted a shareholder rights plan, colloquially known as a "poison pill", in order to ward off the purchase attempt. 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. How exactly Randall Smith chose Heath Freeman as his protg is a matter of speculation among those who have worked for the two of them. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith. 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. 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 . Newspapers Affect Us, Often In Ways We Don't Realize, 'Project Mayhem': Reporters Race To Save Tribune Papers From 'Vulture' Fund. They could be vain, bumbling, even corrupt. It was all about the next quarters profit margins, says Matt DeRienzo, who worked as a publisher for Aldens Connecticut newspapers before finally resigning. Alden gradually took control of the papers that would become DFM. 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. But we dont know, because they arent saying. But for that to happen, the Big Tech money would need to flow to underfunded newsrooms, not into the pockets of Aldens investors. The families that used to own the bulk of Americas local newspapersthe Bonfilses of Denver, the Chandlers of Los Angeleswere never perfect stewards. 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. Shareholders of Tribune Publishing, one of the country's largest newspaper chains, on Friday approved a takeover by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Inside Alden Global Capital. 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 wrote, "Alden Global Capital has eliminated the jobs of scores of reporters and editors, and decimated journalism in cities all over the country: Denver, Boston, San Jose, Trenton, etc. To David Simon, the whimpering end of The Baltimore Sun feels both inevitable and infuriating. Other large shareholders include Californian asset manager Capital Group and UK fund manager Jupiter Asset Management. 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. Coordinated by . The Banner will launch with about 50 journalistsnot far from the size of the Sunand an ambitious mandate. After all, it has a long and venerable history of supporting local news. Alden is known for . Alden Global Capital had recently purchased a nearly one-third stake in the Suns parent company, Tribune Publishing, and the firm was signaling that it would soon come for the rest. By the time the FBI caught them, in 2017, the conspiracy had resulted in one dead civilian and a rash of wrongful arrests and convictions. After college he worked at Hudson Studio, Art Foundry in Niverville, NY . But he couldnt help feeling that the police scandal would have been exposed much sooner if the Sun were operating at full force. . But there was still a sliver of hope: Tribune and Alden agreed that the hedge fund would not increase its stake in the company for at least seven months. 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. And that has consequences for democracy, as journalist McKay Coppins writes in The Atlantic. NPR reached out to Alden for a response. 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.. The men who devised this model are Randall Smith and Heath Freeman, the co-founders of Alden Global Capital. Now he was feeling the effects of their management. Read: What we lost when Gannett came to town. The Alden Global Capital . The editor in chief mysteriously resigned, and managers scrambled to deal with the cuts. No response came back. When the city-hall reporter left a few months later, he picked up that beat too. [30], Alden Global Capital includes a real estate division called Twenty Lake Holdings, which primarily buys excess real estate from newspapers. Interestingly, Smiths foundation didnt do well with its Alden investments in 2016. But by 2014, it was becoming clear to Aldens executives that Patons approach would be difficult to monetize in the short term, according to people familiar with the firms thinking. [31], In 2019, Twenty Lake Holdings reported that it had acquired about 180 properties with 2.3 million square feet of real estate in 29 states. 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. One known investor, however, is the Randall and Barbara Smith Foundation, named for Alden founder Smith and his wife. My answer is its hard to know. 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. Most of his investments are defined by a cold pragmatism, but he takes a more personal interest in the media sector. Gerry Smith. The 21st century has seen many of these generational owners flee the industry, to devastating effect. Soon, Tribune-owned newsrooms across the country were kicking off similar campaigns. 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. [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. But a sense of fatalism permeated the work. How do you know who wins? the boy asks. One tagline he was considering was Marylands Best Newsroom., When I asked, half in jest, if he planned to raid the Sun to staff up, he responded with a muted grin. Aldens website contains no information beyond the firms name, and its list of investors is kept strictly confidential. [2] [3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. John Temple: My newspaper died 10 years ago. 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. It's a tangled tale but essentially Asylum produced a film for the McDonald's charitable foundation for Leo. He can cite decades-old scoops and tell you whom they pissed off. There were sober op-eds and lamentations on Twitter and expressions of disappointment by professors of journalism. Am I going to win against capitalism in America? Misinformation proliferates. Have you heard of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital? Im worried the worst is yet to come. 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 .
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