The ‘Grim Reaper’ of Bay Area Newspapers: Alden Global Capital
If you have ever wondered who is killing local journalism in your area, there’s a decent chance it’s a hedge fund called Alden Global Capital. Over the last 15 years, this predatory firm has become known as the ‘grim reaper’ of local journalism.
If you drove past the iconic Oakland Tribune building and wondered what killed the paper, it was this parasite who bought The Tribune and a dozen other Newspapers in the East Bay, gutted them for parts, and liquidated their staffs. Using its company Digital First Media, they acquired all the papers in the area (like the Alameda Journal and Berkeley Voice) so they could sell off their assets, before folding all of them into The East Bay Times.
This was regardless of whether the papers were profitable or not. It’s a process of ‘buy, plunder, sell’, all for shareholder profit.
The billionaire at the top of the hedge fund, Randall Smith, is also known for being a prolific predatory landlord as well. His property management company Smith Management LLC’s latest scheme is buying up trailer parks to evict the low-income residents, to then sell the real estate for profit.
Alden Global Capital over the years has bought over 200 news publications across the country and is famous for cutting staff at twice the rate of their competitors, according to a 2018 study by University of North Carolina researchers. In the Bay Area, Alden owns The East Bay Times, San Jose Mercury News, and Marin Independent Journal.
If Alden’s pattern repeats with the remaining Bay Area newspapers it now owns, Alden will be saddling these papers with debt, in order to plunder their assets to enrich investors. The end result is communities without local journalism.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rick Goldsmith, recently made a documentary about Alden Global Capital’s dealings with the Denver Post. And how its shameless tactics at the storied newspaper caused a rebellion among the paper’s employees.
Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink:
This documentary by two-time Academy Award-nominee Rick Goldsmith tells the story of a secretive hedge fund plundering American newspapers and the journalists who are fighting back.
Join the San Francisco Public Press at the Roxie Theater at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 13, for a benefit screening of “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.”
We’ll continue the conversation after the screening across the street at Picaro, 3120 16th St., to mingle and chat about the film. Please join us there! — Get your tickets and more details here.
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