Tribune Publishing says Alden bid won shareholders' OK

[Gidney N Cloyd]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

Tribune Publishing directors said Friday shareholders approved Alden Global Capital’s offer to buy the company, heralding a new and uneasy era at the Chicago-based media company and turning aside pleas from its journalists and others who made opposition to the sale into a fight for the soul of journalism.

{snip}

The company announced the result at a special board meeting without giving vote totals. Alden’s $17.25-a-share acquisition will take the 174-year-old company private.

Alden is acquiring the roughly two-thirds of the company that it doesn’t already own. Tribune Publishing owns the Chicago Tribune and eight other large dailies.

{snip}

Alden is a New York-based hedge fund widely criticized for accumulating financially troubled newspapers and deeply cutting payroll and selling assets. It already owns about 200 newspapers through a separate company, MediaNews Group, and its Tribune Publishing deal would make it the nation’s second-largest publisher behind Gannett.

Read more: https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/2021/5/21/22446605/tribune-publishing-alden-shareholder-vote-takeover

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The Trib's op/eds have always been very conservative but their reporting was top notch.
Alden's going to drain the blood out of it and sell the organs.

[ZZenith]

1. At the risk of repeating myself...

Just so everyone is clear on how stinky this is:


And, of course, Randall D. Smith, the founder of this awful company donated $100,000 to the former guy’s “victory fund” in 2019.

“ Alden has a reputation for sharply cutting costs by reducing the number of journalists working on its newspapers.[12][13] 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."[14] Alden received critical coverage from the editorial staff at the Denver Post, who described Alden Global Capital as "vulture capitalists" after multiple staff layoffs.[9][15][16]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alden_Global_Capital

He is married to Barbara Stovall Smith, and they own sixteen mansions in the Palm Beach, Florida, area through limited liability companies.[6] Smith is known for his use of offshore companies.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_D._Smith

[ShazamIam]

2. One of the reasons we are losing our democracy is because the press has been monopolized into the

ownership of a few conservative families and multinational corporations. Propaganda, misinformation and profits are now the only reason they exist.

[Wild blueberry]

3. Sad day

Rest in Peace, Chicago Tribune.
Rot in Hell, vulture capital firm.

[Omaha Steve]

4. After a review by forum hosts....LOCKING

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