Today is World Press Freedom Day, and this year’s theme, “Information as a Public Good,” couldn’t be more appropriate. It reflects the severity of the crisis facing journalism and the need to reshape our industry. We cannot let hedge funds and profit-hungry chains run journalism into the ground. News and information are essential to empowering the people to participate in civic life.
Continue reading “Newsletter: The story you’ve always dreamed of telling”
The journalists of the New York Daily News won union recognition in a blowout on Friday, voting 55-3 to form the Daily News Union, a unit of the NewsGuild of New York.
After a year of organizing, they’re eager to get to the bargaining table. And as the newest unionized paper of the Tribune Publishing chain, they will immediately be drawn into the fight against a takeover by Alden Global Capital.
Follow them on Twitter @NYDNUnion or visit their website, NYDNUnion.com.
This article first appeared on DFM.workers.org on April 28, 2021.
Alden Global Capital says it can buy Tribune Publishing with surplus cash on hand, but the former New York hedge fund’s merger agreement with Tribune appears to contradict the claim.
Doubts about Alden’s ability to purchase Tribune with cash are reinforced by a costly U.S. Department of Labor investigation, mounting lawsuits over broken lease agreements, and a stealthy exit from the top floor of Manhattan’s glamorous Lipstick Building to an unmarked virtual office in South Florida.
Continue reading “Tribune could take on massive debt to finance its own takeover”
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NewsGuild members at The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Ars Technica voted — with 98 percent support — to approve a strike if negotiations with management of their publications and their parent company, Condé Nast, break down further. The vote came on March 26 after years of contentious negotiations for first contracts at each outlet.
Continue reading “Newsletter: Strike votes, the fight for pro-journalism owners and more organizing!”
Tribune CEO Terry Jimenez was lone voice voting against Alden takeover
This article first appeared on the website of DFMworkers.org.
Alden Global Capital is aggressively undermining an effort by a Maryland hotel magnate to buy Tribune Publishing and possibly make its papers nonprofit charities, a new government filing reveals.
Continue reading “Alden is undermining a Baltimore philanthropist’s higher bid for Tribune Publishing”
A committee of the Connecticut state legislature heard compelling testimony Thursday about the value of The Hartford Courant to the local community and the threat that Alden Global Capital poses to it.
Continue reading “Connecticut legislature hears testimony on the value of the Hartford Courant”
In a hearing on saving “the free and diverse press,” NewsGuild president urges lawmakers to protect local news and jobs
Summing up the nation’s local news crisis as a combination of unfair siphoning of advertising revenue by online platforms and “predatory financial actors” who strip newsrooms of jobs and resources, NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss testified Friday at a congressional hearing to address the nation’s local news crisis.
Continue reading “Congress addresses the local news crisis”
Yesterday, Marylanders got some great news: a local investor wants to buy The Baltimore Sun and other Maryland newspapers owned by Tribune Publishing. Other communities with Tribune papers got bad news: the vampire hedge fund Alden Global Capital wants to take over the rest of the company.
Continue reading “Good news for Maryland, bad news for everyone else”
Deal includes selling The Baltimore Sun and several other papers to a nonprofit foundation;
Sale must be approved by two-thirds of remaining shareholders.
Alden Global Capital, the New York hedge fund known for draconian cost-cutting at newspapers in its MNG Enterprises chain, has reached a deal with board members at Tribune Publishing to acquire the publicly traded company and take it private.
Continue reading “Tribune board agrees to sell company to Alden; union vows to continue to fight for quality journalism”
Employees seek to safeguard the News’ future by advocating for job security, equity, and a more inclusive and diverse newsroom.
New York City’s hometown paper is forming a union. The editorial staffers of the New York Daily News announced Friday that they are organizing with NewsGuild of New York. More than 80% of eligible staff are standing together to request voluntary recognition from Tribune Publishing, the News’ parent company.
Continue reading “The New York Daily News is unionizing”