Last year, the parent company of the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, GateHouse Media, bought the second largest chain, Gannett, in a merger valued at $1.2 billion. That deal was also driven by the banking industry. The new company, named Gannett, is controlled by a private equity firm, Fortress Investment Group, which itself is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. The merger also received nearly $2 billion in financing from another private equity firm, Apollo Global Management.
On the day the deal went through, the company’s leader, Michael E. Reed, spoke of “inefficiencies” at the new Gannett and described the NewsGuild, the union that represents journalists at many of its papers, as “a big problem.”
Like Mr. Marx and Mr. Jackson in Chicago, journalists in other cities have made moves to protect their jobs — by working to form unions, seeking out new ownership or generally raising a ruckus.
Journalists at The Baltimore Sun, a Tribune Publishing newspaper, have sought buyers among local entrepreneurs and foundations, said Scott Dance, a weather and environment reporter and unit chair of the union there. The prospects include the Abell Foundation — endowed by the namesake family that owned The Sun until its 1986 sale to Times Mirror, a newspaper company that merged with Tribune Publishing’s predecessor in 2000.
In Oakland last month, journalists at the Alden-owned Bay Area News Group, a ring of daily and community papers that has lost nearly 100 jobs since 2016, leafleted a Christmas tree lighting, warning about “Alden Global Capital and the Destruction of Local News.”
“They clearly do not value the newspaper mission,” said George Kelly, a Bay Area News Group reporter. “We’ve been asking for Alden to invest or get out.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/business/media/newspaper-reporters-hedge-funds.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.