Hedge Fund Known for Slashing Newsrooms Buys Chicago, Baltimore, Boston Papers

A $630 Million Deal

Hari Sreenivasan and NPR’s David Folkenflik discuss a New York hedge fund’s recent acquisition of Tribune Publishing, a $630 million deal. Tribune Publishing has several newspapers, notably The Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun, both of which, like thousands of newspapers nationwide, are nearing financial ruin. Read the summary, watch the video and answer the discussion questions below. To read the transcript of the video above, click here.

• The hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, already owns several newspapers and has a history of slashing small newspapers by cutting newsroom staff by hundreds.
• The new deal with the hedge fund was met with resistance from newsroom employees as it worsens the decades’ long decline of local newspapers, signaling the fall of local journalism.
• Key Term: 
  • Hedge fund: “an investment company that invests its clients’ money in alternative investments to either beat the market or provide a hedge against unforeseen market changes,” according to website The Motley Fool (article here)

Discussion Questions

• Who is involved in this multi-million dollar acquisition deal?
• Why is this business deal causing resistance among Tribune Publishing’s newsroom workers?
• What are some of the future impacts of hedge funds owning small newspapers?
• How are local newsrooms a public service to their communities?
• Where are the organizations willing to help save Tribune Publishing’s papers?
• When is this happening? How long have local newspapers been struggling?

Focus Questions

1. How does the consolidation of newspapers affect the journalism industry?
2. How have activists and organizations tried to help support newspapers and save them from financial ruin?

Media Literacy: What other sources and voices would you want to seek out to better understand how local journalists have been impacted by the consolidation of newspapers by hedge funds?

Additional Resources

• Local newsrooms across the country are closing. Here’s why that matters(PBS NewsHour)
• Hari Sreenivasan mentions in the video that what’s happening to Tribune Publishing is part of a nationwide decades-long trend. To learn more about how local newspapers have been affected by hedge funds, read this New York Times article from 2020 about how a Pottstown, Philadelphia, journalist continues his job as his newsroom is about to shut down.
• ‘We have got an absentee landlord’: Denver Post calls out owners for dramatic newsroom cuts (PBS NewsHour)

Republished with permission from PBS NewsHour Extra