Trib staff rattled by Alden’s pending power
NEWSROOMS across the Tribune Publishing newspaper empire are growing anxious as the standstill agreement that has kept cost-slashing hedge fund Alden Global Capital from increasing its stock holdings gets set to expire next week.
The widespread speculation is that Alden, headed by Heath Freeman, will take advantage of the June 30 sunset to grow its 32 percent stake in Tribune by buying the 24 percent stake in the company now held by health care billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times.
That would transform the hedge fund company from the single-largest stockholder into one with a clear majority of the shares.
“Alden owns it in a few days,” predicted one industry exec who has worked with Tribune. “SoonShiong has no interest in being a white knight at Tribune,” the exec added. “He has his own problems at the LA Times. He’ll be happy to take the $80 or $90 million he can get from Alden and use at the LA Times, which is losing money.”
Alden is known for severe cuts at other papers it controls through its MediaNews Group and Digital First Media units, leading to predictions the same could happen at Tribune, whose papers include the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and the Hartford Courant, if Alden gains control. “They will take out the carving knife,” predicted the executive. “They will cut some advertising and business, but those newsrooms will be shot in the head.”
Tribune has already expanded its board by two members to accommodate two additions affiliated with Alden: Dana Goldsmith Needleman and Christopher Minnetian. The two were voted in despite strenuous objections raised by the Chicago Tribune News Guild.
Separately, a local group headed by the Abell Foundation and the Goldseker Foundation has expressed interest in buying Tribune’s Baltimore Sun and turning it into a not-for-profit, but there’s no indication that Tribune wants to sell. The issue apparently wasn’t even raised at the company’s annual meeting earlier this month.
In Chicago, investigative reporters David Jackson and Gary Marx also have been trying to drum up interest from local business leaders to buy their paper and save it from further cuts., but there are no signs of substantive talks with the publisher.
Times for change
Racial tensions are boiling over at the Los Angeles Times, which held a nearly five-hour town hall on Wednesday to address a “crisis” over the paper’s diversity practices.
The emotional town hall followed a letter sent Tuesday to owner Dr. Patrick Soon Shiong, Executive Editor Norm Pearlstine and managing editors Kimi Yoshino and Scott Kraft criticizing the company’s handling of race issues.
“Over the last two weeks, black former Times journalists have come forward with stories of racist treatment, marginalization and neglect in our newsroom over the last three decades,” said the letter signed by 15 member of the Black Caucus of the LA Times News Guild and 183 other guild members. “The nation’s reckoning over race has put a much-needed spotlight on inequities at The Times. We are in a crisis and it is not new.”
The letter noted that currently there are only 26 black journalists. The newsroom staff numbers over 500. It said the Times should hire enough staff to reflect the percentage of blacks in Los Angeles County.
“The Times would need to hire 18 black journalists over three years, including five over the next year, for a total of 44,” the letter said.
At the meeting, Pearlstine acknowledged, “I have replayed all our hiring and coverage decisions in my head, and I have been taking a hard look in the mirror. What went wrong? With the benefit of hindsight, I realize that hiring people of color was always a priority, but it was never the priority.”
When asked at the meeting if he would step down, he declined. Pearlstine’s contract runs through 2021.
The top editor acknowledged problems as well in a June 6 memo, including pay disparities at the paper. “Many black journalists are still woefully underpaid compared to our white counterparts,” he said in the memo, first reported by LA Podcast. He also called for an end to the work-sharing program put in place to deal with the coronavirus by its deadline of Aug. 1, with no staff cuts.
Separately, three leading black journalists at the paper, including Greg Braxton, the acting television editor, environmental writer Bettina Boxall and Angel Jennings, one of only three black journalists on the Metro desk, filed a civil class-action lawsuit alleging unlawful long-term pay disparities for women and minority journalists.
As of Thursday, the paper had already reached a preliminary settlement over the claims, a spokeswoman told Media Ink.