Newspaper’s future at stake over sale
Deliver us from Alden, so Orlando Sentinel can keep covering Central Florida.
The Orlando Sentinel’s extensive coverage of Joel Greenberg started getting attention this week. National news organizations wanted to know more about the disgraced Seminole County tax collector’s connections to Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who’s under investigation for possible sexual misconduct.
So they turned to a news outlet that still values local news.
The Sentinel produced dozens of stories chronicling Greenberg’s failings as a public servant because the newspaper has dedicated journalists who cover Seminole County. That’s the hallmark of the Sentinel’s work — covering local stories.
Our news staff reports on county commissions and school boards, high school and college sports, restaurants and recipes, live music and local theater, roads and trains. We’re the watchdog that uncovers scandal at the expressway and airport authorities.
That’s why the impending takeover of Tribune Publishing, the Sentinel’s parent company, by the notorious hedge fund Alden Global Capital feels like an existential moment for our newspaper’s future.
Alden’s history with newspaper ownership is akin to a biblical plague of locusts — it devours newsroom resources to maximize profits, leaving ruin in its wake. But more on that shortly. Because we’re feeling more hopeful that the Sentinel and Tribune Publishing might be rescued from a future under Alden’s thumb.
Wealthy potential investors, who appear to appreciate more than just the financial value of newspapers, have taken an interest in Tribune and may join forces to make a counter-offer to Alden.
They include hotel executive Stewart Bainum, who originally wanted to buy just the Baltimore Sun from Alden; Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss; and Mason Slaine, a former media executive who lives in South Florida.
Here in Orlando, Craig Mateer, the founder of Bags Inc., says he wants to join the group but as an investor in the Sentinel.
Mateer, who sold the baggage-handling company in 2018, has a personal connection with the paper — his father was an attorney who worked with the Sentinel’s longtime owner, Martin Andersen.
Other community leaders and philanthropists have expressed interest — a very encouraging sign.
All say they’re motivated by the desire to see newspapers thrive. Like the nation’s founders, they understand the fundamental civic value of news in our society — to keep the public informed and hold government officials like Joel Greenberg accountable.
This is the kind of principled ownership the Sentinel and other Tribune papers like the Chicago Tribune and South Florida Sun Sentinel need to survive and thrive, investors who see not just an opportunity to make money (because many papers, ours included, still make money) but also a way to strengthen their communities.
Alden, on the other hand, sees only profit potential. And that’s not hyperbole.
When Alden assumed control of the MediaNews Group newspaper chain in 2010, one of its premier properties was the Denver Post with a newsroom of some 230 reporters, editors and photographers. Today, the Post has diminished to about 70 journalists in its newsroom. This to cover a metro area of nearly 3 million people. Other papers in the Alden-owned chain have seen bone-deep staff cuts, too.
The Sentinel has hardly been immune to downsizing cuts under Tribune Publishing ownership. The 170-person newsroom in 2010 now numbers just under 80. Like other papers, we’ve closed bureaus, and narrowed our areas of coverage. Our eyes are wide open about what we are able to do today versus 10 years ago.
With Alden as our owner, however, it could get much, much worse.
National Public Radio reported earlier this year that Chicago Tribune Editor Colin McMahon told the newsroom that Alden will expect some papers to nearly double their profit margins.
In our business, just about the only way to make that happen is by cutting personnel, which would mean fewer journalists covering a metro area of 2.6 million people, one of the fastest growing regions in the nation.
Fewer reporters to cover high school football, follow local political campaigns, review the newest restaurants and uncover stories about a tax collector misspending money and abusing power.
We can’t say with 100% certainty that doom awaits if Alden takes over. Nor can we be 100% certain that a purchase by more benevolent investors would preserve community journalism in Central Florida.
But we do know Alden’s track record. And we can contrast the gutting of papers like the Denver Post with the experience in places like Minnesota, where a local investor — Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor — bought the Star Tribune newspaper in 2010.
There, the newsroom still has well over 200 journalists covering a metro area of 3.6 million.
(The Alden-owned newspaper that makes up the other half of the Twin Cities, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, has dropped from 260 newsroom staffers to 50 today.)
These are perilous times for the news business, from the proliferation of lies posing as news to greedy hedge funds sucking newspapers dry.
Our deepest hope is that the investors who are emerging as a possible antidote to Alden will prevail so the Orlando Sentinel and other Tribune Publishing newspapers can continue serving the public by reporting the news, and keeping you informed.
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The editorial board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com.