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. Unless the Tribunes trajectory changes, Chicago may soon provide a grim case study. 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. Tribune Publishing last month approved a $630m takeover deal with Alden Global Capital. "[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. 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. Alden-owned newspapers have cut their staff at twice the rate of their competitors, for all of Tribune Publishings newspapers, security company that trained Saudi operatives. It will rely initially on philanthropic donations, but he aims to sell enough subscriptions to make it self-sustaining within five years. Its World War II correspondent brought firsthand news of Nazi concentration camps to American readers; its editorial page had the power to make or break political careers in Maryland. Newspapers Affect Us, Often In Ways We Don't Realize, 'Project Mayhem': Reporters Race To Save Tribune Papers From 'Vulture' Fund. [27] The Alden lawsuit asserts that the members of the Lee board "have every reason to maintain the status quo and their lucrative corporate positions" and that they are "focused more on [their] own power than what's best for the company. Today, we know that Knight, CalPERS and others no longer invest with Alden. Frustrated and worn out, Glidden broke down one day last spring when a reporter from The Washington Post called. We were in collective revolt, Lillian Reed, a Sun reporter who helped organize the campaign, told me. [29] This attempt also failed, as shareholders returned both directors to the Lee board despite Alden's opposition. Alden Global Capital owns 56 dailies under Digital First Media (Alden also owns 32% of Tribune 10 dailies in Column C.) Tribune Media owns 10 dailies. Two days after the deal was finalized, Alden announced an aggressive round of buyouts. My answer is its hard to know. Alden Global Capital swallowed all of the Tribune's newspapers, including the New York Daily News, earlier in 2021. [2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman. In May 2021, Tribune Publishing finalized its sale to Alden, after having announced in February 2021 that it intended to pursue this path. He used his own money to pull court records, and went years without going on a vacation. Shortly after the Tribune deal closed earlier this year, I began trying to interview the men behind Alden Capital. 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). Its being snuffed out, quarter after quarter after quarter. We were sitting in a coffee shop in Logan Square, and he was still struggling to make sense of what had happened. 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. 'Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys Tribune Papers, Stop The Presses! Heath Freeman, president of Alden Global Capital, is known for pushing big cost reductions, which he says help to save newspapers. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith. 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. Alden Global Capital already owns 200 publications and a 6% stake in Lee Enterprises. Several interim executive positions were also filled by people related to Alden or its parent, Smith Management LLC.[23]. 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. 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. [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. The question was how. We dont hear from them Theyre, like, nameless, faceless people., In the months that followed, the Sun did not immediately experience the same deep staff cuts that other papers did. In truth, Freeman didnt seem particularly interested in defending Aldens reputation. Instead, they gutted the place. That's because the fund is stepping in to buy and then gut newsrooms across the country. At the time, finalternatives.com reported that the Global Distress Opportunities fund would focus on financial firms as well as homebuilding, gaming and auto-related names.. 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 . 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. [4] [5] The company added more newspapers to its portfolio in May 2021 when it purchased Tribune . But the group that jumps out to me on the list is the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. 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. 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. Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is asking its shareholders to help it fight off a hostile takeover . To David Simon, the whimpering end of The Baltimore Sun feels both inevitable and infuriating. Alden's holdings already spanned the country, including the . Probably not.. Much of the Knight family's once-grand newspaper empire was ultimately acquired by Alden Global Capital, while the family foundation invested in Alden funds. The pay was terrible and the work was not glamorous, but Glidden loved his job. The details of how Smith got to know him are opaque, but the resulting loyalty was evident. A month after he started, one of his fellow reporters left and Glidden was asked to start covering schools in addition to his other responsibilities. This was the core of Freemans argument. 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 . . They are also defined by an obsessive secrecy. 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. 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. He declined to meet me in person or to appear on Zoom. After a powerful Illinois state legislator resigned amid bribery allegations, the paper didnt have a reporter in Springfield to follow the resulting scandal. It has figured out how to make a profit by driving newspapers into the ground, he says, since Alden's aim is not to make them into long-term sustainable businesses but rather maximize profits quickly to show it has made a winning investment. Glidden, then a mild-mannered 30-year-old, had come to journalism later in life than most and was eager to prove himself. . But whats happening in Chicago is different. Smith, a reclusive Palm Beach septuagenarian, hasnt granted a press interview since the 1980s. When I asked Freeman what he thought was broken about the newspaper industry, he launched into a monologue that was laden with jargon and light on insightsummarizing what has been the conventional wisdom for a decade as though it were Aldens discovery. 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. Theres no industry that I can think of more integral to a working democracy than the local-news business, he said. 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. The audio for this interview was produced by Ryan Benk and edited by Scott Saloway. 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? But if you really started fucking up in grandiose and belligerent ways, if you started stealing and grifting and lying, eventually somebody would come up behind you and say, Youre grifting and youre lying and theyd put it in the paper., The bad stuff runs for so long now, he went on, that by the time you get to it, institutions are irreparable, or damn near close., Take away the newsroom packed with meddling reporters, and a city loses a crucial layer of accountability. '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. 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. ", "The most feared owner in American journalism looks set to take some of its greatest assets", "Minority shareholder sues Denver Post parent and NY hedge fund over 'breaches of fiduciary duty', "What does the Chicago Tribune sale mean for the future of newsrooms? Bainum envisioned rebuilding the paperwhich, by 2020, was down to a single full-time statehouse reporteras a nonprofit. But in the meantime, there isn't really anything that can fill the hole these newspapers will leave if they're shut down. 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. Instead, the money was used to finance the hedge funds other ventures. Earnest and unpolished, with a perpetually mussed mop of hair, Bainum presented himself as a contrast to the cutthroat capitalists at Alden. 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. Here was one of Americas most storied newspapersa publication that had endorsed Abraham Lincoln and scooped the Treaty of Versailles, that had toppled political bosses and tangled with crooked mayors and collected dozens of Pulitzer Prizesreduced to a newsroom the size of a Chipotle. 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. 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. Alden is known for . This is the story weve been telling for decades about the dying local-news industry, and its not without truth. He writes a weekly column called Mugger that savages the citys journalists by name and frequently runs to 10,000 words. I felt like a terrible reporter because I couldnt get to everything.. At one point, I tracked down the photographer whod taken the only existing picture of Smith on the internet. Senior lenders under the deal were to swap debt for stock. A century later, the Tribune Tower has retained its grandeur. It played with my mind a little bit, Glidden told me. Feb 16, 2021 at 8:05 pm. 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? The hollowing-out of the Chicago Tribune was noted in the national press, of course. [4][13], In November 2021, Alden made an offer to Lee to purchase the company in its entirety for roughly $141 million. It emphasizes supporting the emergence of new, sustainable models for local news, through both grantmaking and research, Sherry told me, including grant programs for nonprofit news organizations. By McKay Coppins. Already the largest shareholder . He shut down Project Thunderdome, parted ways with Paton, and placed all of Aldens newspapers on the auction block. More to the point, Tribune Publishingwhich represents a substantial portion of Aldens titleswas profitable at the time of the acquisition. But that would require slow, painstaking workand there are easier ways to make money. He studied art at Alfred University under sculptors Glenn Zweygardt and William Parry. When a local newspaper vanishes, research shows, it tends to correspond with lower voter turnout, increased polarization, and a general erosion of civic engagement. He said that he still appreciated their journalism, but that he couldnt speak for his corporate bosses. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. [2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman. 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 . In budget meetings, according to the former executive, Freeman hectored local publishers, demanding that they produce detailed numbers off the top of their head and then humiliating them when they couldnt. 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. 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. But I had underestimated how little Aldens founders care about their standing in the journalism world. But we dont know, because they arent saying. Soon, Tribune-owned newsrooms across the country were kicking off similar campaigns. Maybe this obscure hedge fund had a plan. He stops talking to the press, refuses to be photographed, and rarely appears in public. 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. Alden Capital's gutting of the Denver Post is the most discussed example of this, but there are many others. "Local newspaper brands and operations are the engines that power trusted local news in communities across the United States," Heath Freeman, president of Alden Global Capital, said in a . But that's not true for all of them. "[28], In mid-February 2022, the Delaware court found in favor of Lee Enterprises. By Julie Reynolds. [12] Lee owns daily newspapers in 77 markets in 26 states, and about 350 weekly and specialty publications. Smith & Company. 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. But he has a big idea: He believes theres serious money to be made in buying troubled companies, steering them into bankruptcy, and then selling them off in parts. At the Suns peak, it employed more than 400 journalists, with reporters in London and Tokyo and Jerusalem. But while its true that Alden entered the industry by purchasing floundering newspapers, not all of them were necessarily doomed to liquidation. he asks. A reporter at one of his newspapers suggested I try doorstepping Smithshowing up at his home unannounced to ask questions from the porch. The best architects of the era were invited to submit designs; lofty quotes about the Fourth Estate were selected to adorn the lobby. Its the meanness and the elegance of the capitalist marketplace brought to newspapers, Doctor told me. 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. When John Glidden first joined the Vallejo Times-Herald, in 2014, it had a staff of about a dozen reporters, editors, and photographers. In May, The Alden Global Capital a hedge fund, acquired Tribune Publishing TPCO for $633 million. The Tribune Tower, the iconic former home of the Chicago Tribune, seen in Chicago, Illinois in 2015. These papers were in many cases left for dead by local families not willing to make the tough but appropriate decisions to get these news organizations to sustainability. Alden began its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in 2019, when they paid $117.9 million to Michael Ferro for his 25.2-percent stake. Im repulsed by the incestuous world of New York journalism, he tells New York magazine. Alden completed its takeover of the Tribune papers in May.
