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Shareholders of Tribune Publishing, parent company of the New York Daily News and one of the country’s largest newspaper chains, on Friday approved a takeover by hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
Alden, which already owned one-third of Tribune, now takes full control of the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other Tribune papers in a deal worth roughly $630 million. Through its Digital First Media chain, Alden also owns the Boston Herald, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News.
This is just the latest acquisition of a newspaper company by a financial firm. The collapse of print advertising as readers migrate to digital publications has rocked the traditional newspaper business. Publishers have shut down more than 2,000 papers over the past 15 years and half of newsroom jobs have disappeared. Investment firm owners are often criticized for valuing profits over the mission of local journalism, and Alden is no exception.
The deal had drawn opposition from many of the company’s journalists at papers in an unusual spate of employee activism.
They set up rallies, tried to find local buyers and begged for a rescue in their own newspapers. They had rooted for a higher bid from hotel mogul Stewart Bainum in the belief that it would be better for local journalism, although the bid never came to fruition. They lobbied Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times and Tribune’s No. 2 shareholder, to vote no and stop the deal.
Soon-Shiong abstained from the vote, a spokeswoman said Friday.
Alden became Tribune’s largest shareholder in 2019. The union representing Tribune’s journalists says the hedge fund’s cost cuts have already led to shrinking newsrooms and closed offices.
“The purchase of Tribune reaffirms our commitment to the newspaper industry and our focus on getting publications to a place where they can operate sustainably over the long term,” said Heath Freeman, president of Alden, in a statement.
“Alden as top shareholder is an ongoing crisis, but Alden in full control will likely destroy Tribune publications,” wrote Gregory Pratt, head of the Chicago Tribune Guild and a Tribune reporter, in a plea to Soon-Shiong to reject the Alden deal.
Tribune itself is no stranger to cost cuts and shrinking newsrooms. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2012, it split from its TV broadcasting arm in 2014 and since then has bought and sold papers including the Los Angeles Times (sold), the San Diego Union-Tribune (bought and then sold) and the New York Daily News (bought, then hit with layoffs that cut its editorial staff in half). Its annual revenue has fallen by more than half since 2015, and by the end of 2020, its number of full- and part-time employees stood at 2,865 people, just 40% of its headcount five years earlier.
Financial firms view newspapers primarily as short-term investments, according to a 2020 report by the University of North Carolina’s journalism school. Private equity firms and hedge fund owners prioritize shareholder returns over journalism’s civic mission, it found, leading other newspaper owners to adopt similar practices as print-ad revenue, previously key to the industry’s financial health, collapsed. The result: round after round of layoffs, more than 2,000 papers shut down over 15 years and many surviving papers reduced to shells of their former selves.
The financial firms have played a significant role in consolidating the industry as online competition drew away readers’ attention and ad dollars. Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management bought newspaper chain McClatchy in an auction last year following the company’s bankruptcy, beating a bid from Alden. A newspaper company managed by private equity firm Fortress bought Gannett in 2019 with a high-interest loan from another private equity firm. The newspaper company, which retained the Gannett name and is publicly traded, has since ended the management arrangement with Fortress.
The battle for Tribune’s fate accelerated in December, when Alden offered to buy all of the company. A special committee of Tribune’s board recommended that shareholders accept the deal. Tribune CEO Terry Jimenez, who is on the board, had opposed the bid as too low.
An expected higher bid for the whole company from hotel mogul Bainum never fully materialized. He was unable to find a buyer for the Chicago Tribune, a key element in his plan to return the company’s papers to local ownership. Hansjörg Wyss, a billionaire from Wyoming who expressed interest in owning the Chicago Tribune, joined Bainum’s bid, then subsequently dropped out. He did not say why.
Prior to his bid for all of Tribune, Bainum struck a side deal to buy Baltimore Sun Media from Tribune for $65 million via a nonprofit. It’s unclear what happens to the Sun now that the Alden bid has succeeded. Messages left for Bainum through his hotel company and a family foundation were not returned.
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