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TexasTowelie

(117,468 posts)
Fri Feb 19, 2021, 03:51 AM Feb 2021

Private Equity Swallows Up Yet Another Newspaper Group

One of the last newspaper chains not yet controlled by the private equity and hedge fund industry, Tribune Publishing, is being bought by Alden Global Capital. As the Prospect has reported, Alden is one of the absolute worst.

The private equity model is to acquire a newspaper property and strip it to the bone by cutting staff, selling real estate, getting rid of pension plans where possible, and extracting cash. Sometimes, the plan includes borrowing against the newspaper, pocketing the proceeds, and then sticking the debt on the newspaper’s balance sheet. Private equity owners are also notorious union-busters.

The newspaper business was in trouble due to declining ad revenue and internet competition well before the private equity gang came in to shoot the wounded. But even so, well-run locally owned newspapers were able to break even or turn a modest profit.

Of course, there has been so much bad management by traditional chains that there are few heroes in this saga. The Tribune company is far from a role model. It had a disastrous period of ownership of the L.A. Times, which it mercifully sold in 2018, and a misadventure in digital journalism under the clunky name Tronc. The Tribune ownership has cut the New York Daily News staff in half.

Read more: https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/private-equity-swallows-up-yet-another-newspaper-group/
(American Prospect)

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Private Equity Swallows Up Yet Another Newspaper Group (Original Post) TexasTowelie Feb 2021 OP
they own soooo many local papers. mopinko Feb 2021 #1
A little bit of good news in the article... Yeehah Feb 2021 #2

mopinko

(71,940 posts)
1. they own soooo many local papers.
Fri Feb 19, 2021, 08:02 AM
Feb 2021

they did a story on me once. it got picked up in so many small papers.
i heard from friends all over the country. when i googled the article, i got dozens of hits.

Yeehah

(5,203 posts)
2. A little bit of good news in the article...
Fri Feb 19, 2021, 08:11 AM
Feb 2021
One happy by-product of the Tribune sale: The Baltimore Sun is set to be acquired by a nonprofit formed by local businessman and philanthropist Stewart Bainum Jr., who plans to publish the Sun and its affiliates as a locally owned paper for the benefit of the community.


Great news for Baltimore!
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