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.
Alden Global Capital seeks to buy Lee Enterprises for $144M [4], Alden purchased a 5.9-percent stake in Lee Enterprises in January 2020.
Tribune shareholders approve takeover by Alden Global Capital One, the warning shot was fired in 2011, in a Poynter Institute article titled Who is investor Randall Smith and why is he buying up newspaper companies? Randall Smith is the co-founder of Alden, together with his young protg, Heath Freeman, and has been called the grandfather of vulture investing. Vulture funds by definition dont reinvest in their properties they suck them dry. 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).
Alden Global Capital, the Hedge Fund Killing Newspapers - The Atlantic Last week, Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund notorious for slashing costs at its local titles, came down on the No side of the question, with editorial boards at papers that it owns stating that they will no longer endorse candidates for governor, US senator, or president. 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. 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. That might sound like a losing formula, but these papers dont have to become sustainable businesses for Smith and Freeman to make money. In February 2021, he announced a handshake deal to buy the Sun from Alden for $65 million once it acquired Tribune Publishing. Earnest and unpolished, with a perpetually mussed mop of hair, Bainum presented himself as a contrast to the cutthroat capitalists at Alden. Two days after the deal was finalized, Alden announced an aggressive round of buyouts. But a sense of fatalism permeated the work.
Opinions - Help yourself. Is it ever okay to nick an idea? 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 . [8][24] Tribune Publishing publishes nine major metropolitan dailies. He took particular pride in finding novel ways to give away his family fortune, funding child-poverty initiatives in Baltimore and prenatal care for women in Liberia. 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. City budgets balloon, along with corruption and dysfunction. Its not the name or the flag., He may get his wish.
Alden Global Capital pushes to reshape Lee Enterprises board Freeman, meanwhile, would later gloat to colleagues that Bainum was never serious about buying the newspapers and just wanted to bask in the worshipful media coverage his bid generated. Instead, they gutted the place. 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. About a month after The Baltimore Sun was acquired by Alden, a senior editor at the paper took questions from anxious reporters on Zoom. This was the core of Freemans argument. 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. 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's traded in a prestigious downtown newsroom for a "Chipotle-sized office" near the printing press. [33], Alden Global Capital's management of American newspapers has been criticized. Others pointed to Bainums financing partner, who pulled out of the deal at the 11th hour. The details of how Smith got to know him are opaque, but the resulting loyalty was evident. 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. By McKay Coppins. Alden began its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in 2019, when they paid $117.9 million to Michael Ferro for his 25.2-percent stake. If accepted, the $24 per share purchase price would . 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. 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. He gained 100 pounds and started grinding his teeth at night.
Daily News spinoff stirs anxiety after Alden takeover - New York Post The editor in chief mysteriously resigned, and managers scrambled to deal with the cuts. That's because the fund is stepping in to buy and then gut newsrooms across the country. That may well be the future of local news, he says. (Freeman has, in the past, disputed Bainums account of the negotiations.)
Hedge fund Alden Global Capital in hunt for Lee Enterprises newspaper They are also defined by an obsessive secrecy. Im repulsed by the incestuous world of New York journalism, he tells New York magazine. This investment strategy does not come without social consequences. If Knights total divestment from Alden in 2014 was because someone made an ethical decision to stop dealing with the vulture fund, good for them. As a privately held hedge fund, Alden doesnt have to reveal much to the public. 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. 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?. 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. 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..
Newspapers Have Been Struggling And Then Came The Pandemic - Forbes And when Chicago suffered a brutal summer crime wave, the paper had no one on the night shift to listen to the police scanner. But for that to happen, the Big Tech money would need to flow to underfunded newsrooms, not into the pockets of Aldens investors.
Live news: US manufacturing sector contracts for fourth straight month He declined to meet me in person or to appear on Zoom.
Hedge fund Alden in hunt for another big newspaper chain 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 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. What happens next? By the 1980s, this strategy has made Randy luxuriously wealthyvacations in the French Riviera, a family compound outside New York Cityand he has begun to school his children on the wonders of capitalism. In 2016 (year of the most recent 990 available), the foundation invested $17 million in Alden funds.
Hedge fund known for cutting journalism jobs is seeking to buy - CNN . Traditional newspaper business model says you make 95% of your money off ad sales and the rest off subscriptions.
Alden Global to buy Tribune Publishing for $630 million - Los Angeles Times Theyre being targeted by investors who have figured out how to get rich by strip-mining local-news outfits. 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. 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. The movement gained traction in some markets, with local politicians and celebrities expressing solidarity. One researcher tells me that if that money were invested in the S&P 500 Index Fund, it would have earned roughly $11 million over the same period. [3] [4] With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in late . I asked. Baltimore has always had its problems, he told me. More to the point, Tribune Publishingwhich represents a substantial portion of Aldens titleswas profitable at the time of the acquisition.
Hedge fund Alden Global is buying newspaper chain Tribune Publishing NY Daily News owner Alden sues Lee after publisher rejects takeover bid They could be vain, bumbling, even corrupt. Vallejo deserves better. A few weeks after the story came out, he was fired. He started as a general-assignment reporter, covering local crime and community events. Who Profits From Alden Global Capital? , From the February 1905 issue: The confessions of a newspaper woman, The papers union hired a PR firm to launch a public-awareness campaign under the banner Save Our Sun and published a letter calling on the Tribune board to sell the paper to local owners. To David Simon, the whimpering end of The Baltimore Sun feels both inevitable and infuriating. [11], In November 2021, Alden Global Capital made an offer to purchase Lee Enterprises for $24 a share in cash, or about $141 million. They want to know who exactly profits when we learn, as Harvard Nieman Labs Ken Doctor recently reported, that the firm netted $160 million last year from its Digital First Media newspapers. ", "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?
'Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys Tribune But in the meantime, there isn't really anything that can fill the hole these newspapers will leave if they're shut down. And that has consequences for democracy, as journalist McKay Coppins writes in The Atlantic. The men killing Americas newspapers, how Slack upended the workplace, and the new meth. Scott Olson/Getty Images The Alden Global Capital . If they did it right, Venetoulis said, they just might be able to line up a local, civic-minded owner for the paper. 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. Knight began selling off its Alden holdings in 2012, and got completely out in 2014. 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.. But outside the industry, few seemed to notice. The Ubiquity - The student news site of Quartz Hill High School The families that used to own the bulk of Americas local newspapersthe Bonfilses of Denver, the Chandlers of Los Angeleswere never perfect stewards. Maybe this obscure hedge fund had a plan.
Alden Global Capital Is Killing the Newsroom - Common Dreams But we dont know, because they arent saying. The bid by Alden Global Capital, which already owns about 200 local newspapers, had faced resistance from Tribune staff and last-ditch competition. 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. 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. [29] This attempt also failed, as shareholders returned both directors to the Lee board despite Alden's opposition.
Lee Enterprises holds off an Alden takeoverfor now The 21st century has seen many of these generational owners flee the industry, to devastating effect. The Banner will launch with about 50 journalistsnot far from the size of the Sunand an ambitious mandate. In recent months, hes been meeting with leaders of local-news start-ups across the countryThe Texas Tribune, the Daily Memphian, The City in New Yorkand collecting best practices. Meanwhile, with few newsroom jobs left to eliminate, Alden continued to find creative ways to cut costs. Stewart Bainum, since losing his bid for the Sun, has been quietly working on a new venture. It felt important. Feb. 16, 2021 8:04 PM PT. Russ Smith is a puckish libertarian whose self-described contempt for the journalistic class animates the pages of the publication. According to its 990s, Knight ended up making $185,000 over five years on its initial $13.4 million investment. Margaret Sullivan: The Constitution doesnt work without local news. 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. Below are highlights from his conversation with Morning Edition's A Martnez. Feb 16, 2021 at 8:05 pm. In truth, Freeman didnt seem particularly interested in defending Aldens reputation. Alden completed its takeover of the Tribune papers in May. When he did, he exhibited a casual contempt for the journalists who worked there. My answer is its hard to know. At their worst, they used their papers to maintain oppressive social hierarchies.
Hedge fund Alden in hunt for another big newspaper chain - WKMG ", "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? As a young man, hed studied at divinity school before taking over his fathers company, and decades later he still carried a healthy sense of noblesse oblige. I asked, What is the Foundations perspective on those investments now, as news of Aldens gutting of these newspapers has come to light?. Shares of Lee Enterprises Inc. rose sharply Monday after hedge fund Alden Global Capital LLC offered to buy the newspaper publisher for about $141 million.
Digital First Media - Wikipedia When the journalists created a Slack channel to coordinate their efforts across multiple newspapers, they dubbed it Project Mayhem.. After college he worked at Hudson Studio, Art Foundry in Niverville, NY . The newsroom was moved to a single room rented from the local chamber of commerce. Inside Alden Global Capital. Now it might be facing extinction. When the Smiths win, they pass on the house and take the cash prize insteada $20,000 haul that Randy will eventually use to seed a small trading firm he calls R.D. . 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. Ken Kelleher is an American sculptor. 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. After all, it has a long and venerable history of supporting local news. But even for a group of journalists, it was tough to keep the publics attention. Soon, Tribune-owned newsrooms across the country were kicking off similar campaigns. Located in the same Manhattan office building as Alden, it funds stem-cell research, health-related charities, arts and culture and Duke University, alma mater of Smiths protg Heath Freeman. "[21], shareholder rights plan, colloquially known as a "poison pill", "Alden Global Capital LLC NEW YORK , NY", "Company Overview of Alden Global Capital LLC", "Heath Freeman of Alden Global Capital says he wants to save local news. 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. 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. * Edited from 'independent . 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.
Tampa Bay Times sells printing plant to developer for $21 million Reading these stories now has a certain horror-movie quality: You want to somehow warn the unwitting victims of whats about to happen.