Not To Squash the Vibe From the Previous Post ...

Dead Horse Flogging Alert, from the site’s media grump: Alden Global Capital, the vampire hedge fund that strip-mines newspapers large and small, took control of (Chicago) Tribune Publishing this week, which includes my old shop in Newport News, Va., and the Virginian-Pilot in Whitneyville. 

I’ve kvetched plenty about Alden in this space, so I’ll keep it brief. The $633 million sale includes loans totaling $278 million, including a $60 million loan from one of Alden’s other media companies to be repaid at 13 percent interest, according to multiple reports. Alden reserved the right to have Trib Publishing take on $375 million in debt for the purchase. 

The Trib was debt-free, turning a profit, and had more than $250 million in cash available, according to its first quarter financial report. I’m certain that the terms of Alden’s purchase are legal, but I defer to those in the audience more knowledgeable about corporate finance to tell me if the moves are dickish and oily – particularly borrowing from one’s own company and being forced to repay a high interest rate. 

Alden also waited all of two days to offer voluntary buyouts to current employees across the chain, and gave them until June 9 to respond. At their other newspapers, layoffs came if target numbers of buyouts weren’t met. No reason not to expect the same in this instance. The hell of it is that these newspapers already have experienced rounds and rounds of cuts in previous administrations. There’s little fat left.

There are fewer than 1,000 newsroom employees across 10 markets that include Chicago, the Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida and NY Daily News. I have no insight into what will happen at the two southeastern Virginia papers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Alden misreads the room, or reads the room correctly and does whatever the hell it wants. 

The Newport News and Norfolk papers have shared resources and stories, to a degree, since Tribune acquired the Norfolk paper a few years ago. I can see further cuts to both staffs and then simply combining the two papers to create a Hampton Roads Tattler, with an attempt to sell it as a one-stop shop for all Tidewater news. Never mind that Hampton Roads is absurdly balkanized and its municipalities are all but incentivized to remain as such. There’s zero outcry for a regional paper. 

Folks in Hampton and Newport News aren’t much interested in what the other is doing. Norfolk doesn’t give a fig about Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake wouldn’t piss on Portsmouth if it were on fire. Williamsburg might as well be Mars to folks on the Southside (Whitney excepted). The result is almost certain to be downgraded local journalism, dedicated newspaper people left to scramble for the next opportunity, and a less informed population. Discouraging days for an old keyboard jockey.