Meanwhile, with few newsroom jobs left to eliminate, Alden continued to find creative ways to cut costs. There were sober op-eds and lamentations on Twitter and expressions of disappointment by professors of journalism. Hedge fund Alden's bid for owner of Virginian-Pilot, Daily Press [21], Under the acquisition plan, MediaNews Group debt fell to $165 million from about $930 million. Am I going to win against capitalism in America? The Alden Global Capital . That might sound like a losing formula, but these papers dont have to become sustainable businesses for Smith and Freeman to make money. It was clear that they didnt care about this being a business in the future. Financially, it was a raw deal. 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. 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. 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. But even for a group of journalists, it was tough to keep the publics attention. The one central theme, the Times reports, seems to be that Smith and its web of affiliates are out, first and foremost, for themselves. If this reputation bothers Randy and his colleagues, they dont let on: For a while, according to The Village Voice, his firm proudly hangs a painting of a vulture in its lobby. 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. [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. The hollowing-out of the Chicago Tribune was noted in the national press, of course. Coordinated by . The California Public Employees Retirement System, a few European banks, and Citigroup and Coca Cola Companys pension funds have all invested in Alden, along with charities such as the Circle of Service Foundation and the Alfred University Endowment. 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? Who Profits From Alden Global Capital? You'd be surprised. MediaNews Group came out of bankruptcy in March 2010 under the majority ownership of its lenders. But whats happening in Chicago is different. Tuesday, 23 November 2021 07:46 PM EST. 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. In 2011, Paton launched an ambitious initiative he called Project Thunderdome, hiring more than 50 journalists in New York and strategically deploying them to supplement short-staffed local newsrooms. You need real capital to move the needle, he told me. Smith, a reclusive Palm Beach septuagenarian, hasnt granted a press interview since the 1980s. 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.. [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. For Freeman, newspapers are financial assets and nothing morenumbers to be rearranged on spreadsheets until they produce the maximum returns for investors. Two veteran journalists from the Chicago Tribune published an op-ed on Sunday challenging one of the paper's principal owners, the New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital. If you want to know what its like when Alden Capital buys your local newspaper, you could look to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where coverage of local elections in more than a dozen communities falls to a single reporter working out of his attic and emailing questionnaires to candidates. 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. It hurts to see the paper like this, he told her. [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. 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 . But while its true that Alden entered the industry by purchasing floundering newspapers, not all of them were necessarily doomed to liquidation. 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. A recent Financial Times analysis found that half of all daily newspapers in the U.S. are controlled by financial firms, and Coppins says that number is all but certain to keep growing. 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. [30], Alden Global Capital includes a real estate division called Twenty Lake Holdings, which primarily buys excess real estate from newspapers. The pay was terrible and the work was not glamorous, but Glidden loved his job. Smith & Company, a firm founded by Randall Duncan Smith, initially using the $20,000 cash prize he and his wife won on the 1968-1970 gameshow Dream House. He studied art at Alfred University under sculptors Glenn Zweygardt and William Parry. Opinions - Help yourself. Is it ever okay to nick an idea? Heath Freeman, president of Alden Global Capital, is known for pushing big cost reductions, which he says help to save newspapers. The new owners had announced a round of buyouts, some beloved staffers were leaving, and those who remained were worried about the future. Alden Global to buy Tribune Publishing for $630 million - Los Angeles Times 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. For those who cared about the future of local news, it was hard to imagine a better outcomewhich made it all the more devastating when the bid fell through. My request for an interview with Smith was dismissed by his spokesperson before I finished asking. The families that used to own the bulk of Americas local newspapersthe Bonfilses of Denver, the Chandlers of Los Angeleswere never perfect stewards. NY Daily News owner Alden sues Lee after publisher rejects takeover bid When it was over, a quarter of the newsroom was gone. The newspaper lost a quarter of its staff to buyouts after it was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May. In the past 15 years, more than a quarter of American newspapers have gone out of business. The newspaper lost a quarter of its staff to buyouts after it was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May. 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. Collectively, they control about one-half of daily newspapers in the U.S. Hedge fund known for cutting journalism jobs is seeking to buy - CNN He shut down Project Thunderdome, parted ways with Paton, and placed all of Aldens newspapers on the auction block. ), Crucially, the profits generated by Aldens newspapers did not go toward rebuilding newsrooms. The newsroom was moved to a single room rented from the local chamber of commerce. 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. But beneath all the recriminations and infighting was a cruel reality: When faced with the likely decimation of the countrys largest local newspapers, most Americans didnt seem to care very much. NPR reached out to Alden for a response. 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. 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. In May, The Alden Global Capital a hedge fund, acquired Tribune Publishing TPCO for $633 million. 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. 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. about two hundred 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. That's because the fund is stepping in to buy and then gut newsrooms across the country. Today, half of all daily newspapers in the U.S. are controlled by financial firms, according to an analysis by the Financial Times, and the number is almost certain to grow. The audio for this interview was produced by Ryan Benk and edited by Scott Saloway. 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.. The Ubiquity - The student news site of Quartz Hill High School 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, 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 . 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. hide caption. If accepted, the $24 per share purchase price would . Glidden, then a mild-mannered 30-year-old, had come to journalism later in life than most and was eager to prove himself. . If they did it right, Venetoulis said, they just might be able to line up a local, civic-minded owner for the paper. 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. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith. 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. In the for-profit news arena, Knight is spurring the digital transformation of local newsrooms through the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, Sherry said. Media . 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. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital, one of the country's largest newspaper owners with a reputation for intense cost cuts and layoffs, has offered to buy the local newspaper chain Lee Enterprises . One known investor, however, is the Randall and Barbara Smith Foundation, named for Alden founder Smith and his wife. 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. Nov. 22, 2021. 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 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. Alden Global Capital already had a 32% stake in Tribune Publishing, which owns famous names like the Tribune, Daily News, the Hartford Courant and others, and on Tuesday announced it would pay . At the Pioneer Press , where its staff is down to 60, the paper produced a . 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. 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. These included several Cayman Island-based funds and another profiting from Greek debt stemming from that countrys financial crisis. Baltimore is an underdog town, Liz Bowie, a Sun reporter who was at the meeting, told me. These papers would have been liquidated if not for us stepping up.. After college he worked at Hudson Studio, Art Foundry in Niverville, NY . Some people believe that local newspapers will eventually be replaced by new publications, which Coppins describes as "built from the ground-up for the digital era." It financed the deal with the help of Cerberusa private-equity firm that owned, among other businesses, the security company that trained Saudi operatives who participated in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Alden is known for . It's traded in a prestigious downtown newsroom for a "Chipotle-sized office" near the printing press. But Glidden felt sure he knew the real reason: Alden wanted him gone. Most of his investments are defined by a cold pragmatism, but he takes a more personal interest in the media sector. Read: What we lost when Gannett came to town. 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. 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. Lee Enterprises, the owner of daily newspapers in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, this morning rejected a hedge fund's proposal to take over the company. Who Profits From Alden Global Capital? The largest share of the blame was assigned to the Tribune board for allowing the sale to Alden to go through. Theyre being targeted by investors who have figured out how to get rich by strip-mining local-news outfits. How do you know who wins? the boy asks. Russ Smith is a puckish libertarian whose self-described contempt for the journalistic class animates the pages of the publication. Hes impressed by their journalism, he told me, but his clearest takeaway is that theyre not nearly well funded enough. Lee, which owns the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Omaha World-Herald and many other daily newspapers throughout the region, is staving off a takeover attempt by Alden Global Capital, a New-York . But he couldnt help feeling that the police scandal would have been exposed much sooner if the Sun were operating at full force. As a privately held hedge fund, Alden doesnt have to reveal much to the public. 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. As the months passed, things kept getting worse. 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. The story of Alden Capital begins on the set of a 1960s TV game show called Dream House. Well, that wasnt the point. [4], In 2019, Alden attempted, but failed at, a hostile takeover of Gannett. "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 . Youd be surprised. 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. Chicago-based Tribune Publishing on Tuesday announced a proposed sale to hedge fund Alden Global Capital in a deal valued at $630 million. [33], Alden Global Capital's management of American newspapers has been criticized. Connecting this to the current state of American newspaper ownership seems rather tenuous.. 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. 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. To David Simon, the whimpering end of The Baltimore Sun feels both inevitable and infuriating. No response came back. It makes me profoundly sad to think about what the Trib was, what it is, and what its likely to become, says David Axelrod, who was a reporter at the paper before becoming an adviser to Barack Obama. The papers printing was moved to a plant more than 100 miles outside town, Glidden told me, which meant that the news arriving on subscribers doorsteps each morning was often more than 24 hours old. Maybe theyd cancel their subscriptions eventually; maybe the papers would fold altogether. 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 . 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. 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. To replace a paper like the Sun would require a large, talented staff that covers not just government, but sports and schools and restaurants and art. A Secretive Hedge Fund Is Gutting Newsrooms. Alden Global Looks to Buy Newspaper Publisher Lee Enterprises "60 Minutes" correspondent Jon Wertheim did a strong piece that aired Sunday night about the grim state of local newspapers, in part because of how hedge funds, such as Alden Global Capital . [11], In November 2021, Alden Global Capital made an offer to purchase Lee Enterprises for $24 a share in cash, or about $141 million. That may well be the future of local news, he says. I put the question to Freeman, but he declined to answer on the record. Three days later, Bainumstill smarting from his experience with Alden, but worried about the Suns fatesent a pride-swallowing email to Freeman. Another ex-publisher told me Freeman believed that local newspapers should be treated like any other commodity in an extractive business. They call Alden a vulture hedge fund, and I think thats honestly a misnomer, Johnson said. At the time, the Sun had a bustling bureau in Annapolis, and he marveled at the reporters ability to sort the honest politicians from the political whores by exposing abuses of power. [2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman. With his own money, he helps his brother launch the New York Press, a free alt-weekly in Manhattan. Alden Global Capital is buying and gutting local newspapers : NPR - NPR.org In early 2011, Alden was still considered a non-controlling investor, but by the end of the year, that would change. Heath Freeman in an undated photo provided by Goldin Solutions . Neither man will ever be the guest of honor at the annual dinner for the Committee to Protect Journalistsand thats probably fine by them. Freeman, his 41-year-old protg and the president of the firm, would be unrecognizable in most of the newsrooms he owns. 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. Have you heard of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital? Already the largest shareholder . ", "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? . He stops talking to the press, refuses to be photographed, and rarely appears in public. Meanwhile, in Vallejo, John Glidden went from covering crime and community news to holding the title of the only hard news reporter in town, filling a legal pad with tips he knew he'd never have time to pursue. This Is How a Newspaper Dies - POLITICO Magazine By that point, Alden was widely known as the grim reaper of American newspapers, as Vanity Fair had put it, and news of the acquisition plans had unleashed a wave of panic across the industry. When the journalists created a Slack channel to coordinate their efforts across multiple newspapers, they dubbed it Project Mayhem.. by Magnus Shaw..An enormous advertising company (Leo Burnett) and a small creative film company (Asylum) have had a difficult couple of weeks. Newspapers Have Been Struggling And Then Came The Pandemic - Forbes Some in the city started to wonder if the paper was even worth saving. 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. 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? Alden Global Capital, the New York hedge fund that bought Tribune Publishing this year, said on Monday that it was making an offer for another big American newspaper chain, Lee . He writes a weekly column called Mugger that savages the citys journalists by name and frequently runs to 10,000 words. So what is this Distressed Opportunities fund? The question was how. Coppins describes Alden as a specific type of firm: a "vulture hedge fund." You can bypass most soft paywalls with a little CSS knowledge

Crawley Town Centre Incident Today, Nslookup Unrecognized Command, Articles W