After college he worked at Hudson Studio, Art Foundry in Niverville, NY . Other records turned up from public pension funds and filings of publicly traded companies. 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. 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. 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. And when Chicago suffered a brutal summer crime wave, the paper had no one on the night shift to listen to the police scanner. Alden Global Capital already owns 200 publications and a 6% stake in Lee Enterprises. His editor cited a supposed journalistic infraction (Glidden had reported the resignation of a school superintendent before an agreed-upon embargo). This investment strategy does not come without social consequences. 'Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys Tribune [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. 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. . According to its 990s, Knight ended up making $185,000 over five years on its initial $13.4 million investment. The Banner will launch with about 50 journalistsnot far from the size of the Sunand an ambitious mandate. [33], Alden Global Capital's management of American newspapers has been criticized. . Hedge fund known for cutting journalism jobs is seeking to buy - CNN Several interim executive positions were also filled by people related to Alden or its parent, Smith Management LLC.[23]. He says he visited the Tribune's office and was "really shocked by how grim the scene was." Iowa-based Lee Enterprises asks investors to help fight off hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Alden Global Capital Is Killing the Newsroom - Common Dreams At the end of last month, Alden Global Capital, a notorious newspaper-owning hedge fund, sought to stake its claim on one of the last newspaper chains it hasn't yet touched: Lee Enterprises, which owns 90 publications across the country.Alden, which currently owns six percent of Lee's stock, sent an unsolicited offer to purchase the newspaper chain for $24 per share. Joe Pompeo pilloried Alden in Vanity Fair for reducing newsrooms. NPR reached out to Alden for a response. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital in hunt for Lee Enterprises newspaper As the months passed, things kept getting worse. Alden began its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in 2019, when they paid $117.9 million to Michael Ferro for his 25.2-percent stake. 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. "And what we've seen in a lot of these places where newspapers have been scaled back or even closed is there really is no comparable product in place, whether it's by the government or by another news organization, to do what these local newspapers have done for hundreds of years.". Yes, today, it's a newspaper without a newsroom. He quotes H. L. Mencken, the papers crusading 20th-century columnist, on the joys of journalism: It is really the life of kings. Now it might be facing extinction. [15][16] In March 2018, Margaret Sullivan, the media columnist for The Washington Post, called Alden "one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism. So who is investing with them? but sadly on a global scale there is hardly any independent news sources left currently. [12] Lee owns daily newspapers in 77 markets in 26 states, and about 350 weekly and specialty publications. What happens next? On Monday, Dail The vulture is hungry again: Alden Global Capital wants to buy a few What threatens local newspapers now is not just digital disruption or abstract market forces. 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. Nov. 22, 2021. October 14, 2021. Some expressed exasperation with the staff of the Chicago Tribune, who were unable to find a single interested local buyer. 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. Tips that he would never have time to investigate piled up on a legal pad he kept at his desk. And two, by at least 2013, those of us who worked at Alden-controlled papers (like me) were already experiencing the slashing and burning. For two men who employ thousands of journalists, remarkably little is known about them. 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. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital in hunt for big newspaper chain Lee "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 . These papers would have been liquidated if not for us stepping up.. Heath Freeman in an undated photo provided by Goldin Solutions . Alden Global Capital makes an offer for Lee Enterprises, a big 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. When a local newspaper vanishes, research shows, it tends to correspond with lower voter turnout, increased polarization, and a general erosion of civic engagement. It has filed a lawsuit in its bid to buy out news publisher Lee Enterprises. The details of how Smith got to know him are opaque, but the resulting loyalty was evident. Its a game, Randy explains to his son. 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 . Aldens calculus was simple. But that's not true for all of them. On March 9, 2020, a small group of Baltimore Sun reporters convened a secret meeting at the downtown Hyatt Regency. 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 . That may well be the future of local news, he says. Some in the industry say they wouldnt be surprised if Smith and Freeman end up becoming the biggest newspaper moguls in U.S. history. 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. ", "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? One known investor, however, is the Randall and Barbara Smith Foundation, named for Alden founder Smith and his wife. The specific shareholder rights plan adopted by the Lee board forbids Alden from purchasing more than 10% of the company, and will be in force for one year. Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is asking its shareholders to help it fight off a hostile takeover . Orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft a closely watched proxy for business investment, rose 0.8 per cent in January from a month earlier, comfortably above economists . During its five-year run with Alden, it seems quite unlikely that no one at Knight knew about the hedge funds slash-and-burn strategy for two reasons. 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? Live news: US manufacturing sector contracts for fourth straight month 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. When the city-hall reporter left a few months later, he picked up that beat too. 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. Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that owns The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press in Virginia, has proposed purchasing Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based owner of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and most other major Virginia newspapers, for approximately $144 million, Alden announced Monday. In the for-profit news arena, Knight is spurring the digital transformation of local newsrooms through the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, Sherry said. 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. Well, he told me, they have some very good reporters., This article appears in the November 2021 print edition with the headline The Men Who Are Killing Americas Newspapers., A Secretive Hedge Fund Is Gutting Newsrooms, I Dont Know That I Would Even Call It Meth Anymore, W. G. Sebald Ransacked Jewish Lives for His Fictions. When he did, he exhibited a casual contempt for the journalists who worked there. Its hard to imagine theyd show, anyway. After congratulating him on closing the deal, Bainum said he was still interested in buying the Sun if Alden was willing to negotiate. But we dont know, because they arent saying. He started as a general-assignment reporter, covering local crime and community events. After a contentious presidential race and amid a still-raging pandemic, there was a limited supply of outrage and sympathy to spare for local reporters. [10] With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in late May 2021, Alden is collectively the second-largest owner of newspapers in the United States, as calculated by average daily print circulation, second only to Gannett. They call Alden a vulture hedge fund, and I think thats honestly a misnomer, Johnson said. [3] [4] With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in late . What's in the fine print in Alden's offer to takeover Tribune? - The Below are highlights from his conversation with Morning Edition's A Martnez. Ken Kelleher - Creative Director / Artist - LinkedIn I put the question to Freeman, but he declined to answer on the record. But for all the theatrics, his marching orders were always the same: Cut more. 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. Alden Global Capital revealed a proposal Monday to purchase Lee Enterprise Inc. and its newspapers at $24 a share, casting alarm through the many newsrooms owned by Lee. Of course, its easy to romanticize past eras of journalism. (Freeman has, in the past, disputed Bainums account of the negotiations.) Morale tanked; reporters burned out. Ken Kelleher is an American sculptor. 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. 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. Most responded with variations on the same question: Which recent stories from your newspapers have you especially appreciated? It was like watching a slow-motion disaster, says Gregory Pratt, a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. They are also defined by an obsessive secrecy. 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 for . Hes impressed by their journalism, he told me, but his clearest takeaway is that theyre not nearly well funded enough. Alden Global Capital - Wikipedia Inside Alden Global Capital. To be sure, the Knight Foundation does much to help promote and sustain local news. The model is simple: Gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices, and wring as much cash as possible out of the enterprise until eventually enough readers cancel their subscriptions that the paper folds, or is reduced to a desiccated husk of its former self. He writes a weekly column called Mugger that savages the citys journalists by name and frequently runs to 10,000 words. So Freeman pivoted. The endorsement debate swings around again - Columbia Journalism Review 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. 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. On more than one occasion, according to people I spoke with, he asked aloud, What do all these people do? According to the former executive, Freeman once suggested in a meeting that Aldens newspapers could get rid of all their full-time reporters and rely entirely on freelancers. ), Crucially, the profits generated by Aldens newspapers did not go toward rebuilding newsrooms. 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? 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.
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