Tribune Publishing shareholders will decide Friday whether to approve the company’s sale to hedge fund Alden Global Capital, a move that would place Tribune’s publications, including the Hartford Courant, under Alden’s control.
Alden, which already owns a 32% stake in the company, announced plans to acquire the entire Chicago-based media conglomerate in February. Since then, the proceedings have been complicated, though not upended, by longshot competing offers and by protests from Hartford Courant staff, who fear the 257-year-old institution, already reeling from job cuts under Tribune, will fare even worse under Alden.
In a statement, Rebecca Lurye, chair of the Hartford Courant Guild, laid out the organization’s opposition to an Alden takeover and reiterated its call for local investors to buy the publication.
“Unfortunately, our ability to deliver the high-quality news our readers have come to expect from us — and in fact, our very existence — is threatened by Alden Global Capital,” Lurye said. “Connecticut needs a fierce, courageous Courant and I’m certain we will only get there under local, civic-minded ownership. That’s why the guild opposes this sale to Alden. We demand better and Connecticut deserves better than endless cuts.”
Alden has faced criticism for aggressively slashing costs and laying off workers at the newspapers it controls, including the Boston Herald, The Mercury News of San Jose, California, and The Denver Post, where the editorial board denounced Alden’s management after the hedge fund dismissed one third of the newspaper’s employees.
“We are urging shareholders to vote against the sale of Tribune Publishing to Alden Global Capital,” said Alex Putterman, a Courant reporter who is active in the guild. “We think Alden’s track record speaks for itself. It’s history seems to suggest that it is more interested in chasing the next penny than in producing strong journalism, which is our main value.”
Tribune is encouraging investors to vote in favor of the Alden acquisition. The company briefly entertained a rival offer from Maryland hotel executive Stewart Bainum Jr. and Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, who intended to reorient some or all of the Tribune titles as not-for-profit entities, but that proposal collapsed last month after Wyss withdrew from the 11th-hour bid.
The partners, who combined as Newslight LLC, had initially offered to buy Tribune for $18.50 per share, or $680 million, higher than Alden’s proposed price of $17.25 per share, or $630 million.
But a special committee set up by Tribune to negotiate the offers ultimately lined up behind the Alden deal, noting the agreement put forward by Bainum and Wyss was non-binding and could take longer to complete than a transaction with Alden. Also weighing against the Bainum-Wyss venture was their plan to finance a portion of the purchase price with the company’s cash on hand.
Wyss eventually pulled out of the deal and Tribune subsequently announced it had terminated all talks and negotiations with Newslight LLC.
Bainum has said he’s continuing to entice other investors to join his purchase bid.
In addition to the Hartford Courant and The Baltimore Sun, Tribune Publishing also owns the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Florida’s Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel, Virginia’s Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot, and The Morning Call of eastern Pennsylvania.
