Its not the name or the flag., He may get his wish. Denver Post reporters vs 'vulture capitalist' hedge fund Alden - CNBC 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. 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. I asked, What is the Foundations perspective on those investments now, as news of Aldens gutting of these newspapers has come to light?. It played with my mind a little bit, Glidden told me. 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. 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. 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. "[18], Alden received critical coverage from the editorial staff at the Denver Post, who described Alden Global Capital as "vulture capitalists" after multiple staff layoffs. One known investor, however, is the Randall and Barbara Smith Foundation, named for Alden founder Smith and his wife. Hedge fund Alden in hunt for another big newspaper chain Prior to the acquisition of the Tribune Company, we purchased substantially all of our newspapers out of bankruptcy or close to liquidation, he told me. You need real capital to move the needle, he told me. 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.. It is the nations second-largest newspaper owner by circulation. It . This Is How a Newspaper Dies - POLITICO Magazine Hedge fund reaches $630m deal to buy remaining Tribune Publishing Hedge fund Alden to buy Tribune Publishing in deal valued at $630 MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado -based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. "A lot of cities almost operate with the assumption that there will be at least one local newspaper, in some cases several local newspapers, acting as a check on the authorities," he says. about two hundred American newspapers. Is this company saving newspapers or profiting from their demise? - The Alden Launches $142 Million Bid for Publisher Lee Enterprises It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. After all, it has a long and venerable history of supporting local news. 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. Morale tanked; reporters burned out. Hedge fund Alden Global Capital in hunt for Lee Enterprises newspaper Scott Olson/Getty Images 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). The paper had weathered a decade and a half of mismanagement and declining revenues and layoffs, and had finally achieved a kind of stability. 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. Former Knight-Ridder headquarters. At the Suns peak, it employed more than 400 journalists, with reporters in London and Tokyo and Jerusalem. But Glidden felt sure he knew the real reason: Alden wanted him gone. When Alden first started buying newspapers, at the tail end of the Great Recession, the industry responded with cautious optimism. The Alden Global Capital . 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. The Tribune Tower, the iconic former home of the Chicago Tribune, seen in Chicago, Illinois in 2015. Alden gradually took control of the papers that would become DFM. Nov. 22, 2021. A look at Alden Global Capital is the cover story of the latest . What exactly went wrong would become a point of bitter debate among the journalists involved in the campaigns. As a privately held hedge fund, Alden doesnt have to reveal much to the public. 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. I put the question to Freeman, but he declined to answer on the record. he asks. When the Chicago Tribune held a Save Local News rally, most of the people who showed up were members of the media. Tribune shareholders approve takeover by Alden Global Capital 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. 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. The pitch had a certain romantic appeal to the reporters in the room. According to Aldens scarce SEC filings, it currently has fewer than 10 investors, most of them from overseas. But who most of those few souls are, and how much of the hundreds of millions skimmed from DFM papers theyve received remains a deep, dark mystery. He had spoken on this issue before, and it was easy to see why. 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. With Alden in control, he believes the Sun is now a prisoner that stands little chance of escape. Knight first reported its investment in Alden in 2010, noting the fair market value of its Alden holdings was $13.4 million. When plans for the building were announced in 1922, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime owner of the Chicago Tribune, said he wanted to erect the worlds most beautiful office building for his beloved newspaper. For Freeman and his investors to come out ahead, they didnt need to worry about the long-term health of the assetsthey just needed to maximize profits as quickly as possible. Alden Global Capital makes an offer for Lee Enterprises, a big But I had underestimated how little Aldens founders care about their standing in the journalism world. What most concerns him is how his city will manage without a robust paper keeping tabs on the people in charge. Below are highlights from his conversation with Morning Edition's A Martnez. Heath Freeman, president of Alden Global Capital, is known for pushing big cost reductions, which he says help to save newspapers. . Alden, a New York City-based firm that has become the grim reaper of American newspapers, had recently increased its stake in Tribune Publishing to 32%making it the largest shareholder of the . I asked if anyone there at the time was aware of Aldens vulture business strategy. Next up: Chicago, Baltimore, and the New York Daily News. PDF GateHouse Media Alden Global Capital Tribune Media McClatchy Lee It was all about the next quarters profit margins, says Matt DeRienzo, who worked as a publisher for Aldens Connecticut newspapers before finally resigning. Alden Global to buy Tribune Publishing for $630 million - Los Angeles Times [33], Alden Global Capital's management of American newspapers has been criticized. What's in the fine print in Alden's offer to takeover Tribune? - The Traditional newspaper business model says you make 95% of your money off ad sales and the rest off subscriptions. Dec 9, 2021. Have you heard of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital? Alden, which owns more than 200 newspapers across the country, has developed a reputation for using extensive layoffs and severe cost cuts at the newspapers it owns. But it turned out that Smith had so many doorsteps16 mansions in Palm Beach alone, as of a few years ago, some of them behind gatesthat the plan proved impractical. 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.. The men who devised this model are Randall Smith and Heath Freeman, the co-founders of Alden Global Capital. Reporters kept reporting, and editors kept editing, and the union kept looking for ways to put pressure on Alden. Even in the greed is good climate of the era, Randy is a polarizing character on Wall Street. How Alden Global Capital will make money owning Tribune Publishing At their worst, they used their papers to maintain oppressive social hierarchies. Hedge fund known for cutting journalism jobs is seeking to buy - CNN Youd be surprised. On . As a reporter who's 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 America's largest newspaper chains?. Local newsrooms strained by budget-slashing financial firms "[28], In mid-February 2022, the Delaware court found in favor of Lee Enterprises. 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. 'Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys - NPR About a month after The Baltimore Sun was acquired by Alden, a senior editor at the paper took questions from anxious reporters on Zoom. Opinions - Help yourself. Is it ever okay to nick an idea? He said that he still appreciated their journalism, but that he couldnt speak for his corporate bosses. Aldens website contains no information beyond the firms name, and its list of investors is kept strictly confidential. When the journalists created a Slack channel to coordinate their efforts across multiple newspapers, they dubbed it Project Mayhem.. In May, the Tribune was acquired by Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund that has quickly, and with remarkable ease, become one of the largest newspaper operators in the country. 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. Tampa Bay Times sells printing plant to developer for $21 million This once-proud publication is now owned and run by Alden Global Capital, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund with a long record of buying papers on the cheap, selling off their assets and slashing pay and jobs. It was clear that they didnt care about this being a business in the future. I asked. The 21st century has seen many of these generational owners flee the industry, to devastating effect. When Simon called me, he was on the set of his new miniseries, We Own This City, which tells the true story of Baltimore cops who spent years running their own drug ring from inside the police department. He shut down Project Thunderdome, parted ways with Paton, and placed all of Aldens newspapers on the auction block. He declined to meet me in person or to appear on Zoom. Feb 16, 2021 at 8:05 pm. 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. [10][19][20], The company has its origins in R.D. "[25], In early December, the board of Lee unanimously rejected the Alden bid, saying that the Alden proposal "grossly undervalues Lee and fails to recognize the strength of our business today. It's a tangled tale but essentially Asylum produced a film for the McDonald's charitable foundation for Leo. A search through nonprofit groups publicly available financial reports, commonly known as Form 990s, reveals that all kinds of organizations some surprising have invested their monies with Alden over the years.
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