newspapers

Publications owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, the second-largest newspaper publisher in the country, will no longer endorse major political candidates in their opinion pages. In an editorial that is scheduled to run in papers as early as Friday, the company’s publications will tell readers that they will stop endorsing candidates in presidential, Senate and gubernatorial elections.

The Denton Record-Chronicle, Denton County, Texas’ primary local newspaper, and KERA, North Texas’ source for PBS and NPR programming, have announced they are moving toward KERA’s acquisition of the Denton Record-Chronicle. The two organizations are currently in a discovery phase, with plans to close the acquisition in 2023.

With advertising down and newsprint and delivery costs rising, reduced traffic puts pressure on an already ailing industry.

All three major American networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — broke into regularly scheduled programming to announce the news. Many Fox affiliates picked up the live coverage from Fox News. American newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today had blaring headlines on their websites — the kind of headlines reserved only for the biggest news stories. CNN used its “Breaking News” banner — something it has done much less of since Chris Licht took over as the network’s boss.

The paper is considering a reduction of its daily print product next year, according to Saporta Report, based on unnamed sources within the newsroom. But the Journal-Constitution says no decision has been made. According to the Saporta report, the title would drop its weekly daily print product, continuing as a digital daily. But it would maintain its weekend print edition.

Revenue from digital advertising fell slightly in the second quarter, but subscription revenue continued to rise sharply, the company said.

Many doubted the story of a young rape victim who had to cross state lines for an abortion. But journalists on the ground kept reporting.

Newspaper publishers have seen revenues drop by more than half in the last two decades, as the internet disrupts advertising markets that once funded tens of thousands of jobs in newsrooms across the country. New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows newspaper publishers collected about $22.1 billion in revenue in 2020, less than half the amount they collected in 2002, according to the Bureau’s Service Annual Survey.

Joseph F. Kahn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning China correspondent who rose to lead the international desk of The New York Times, and then as managing editor helped steer the newspaper into the digital era, has been selected to be The Times’s next executive editor, the top newsroom job. (Photo: Celeste Sloman for The New York Times)

For more than two decades, industry sages have been predicting the death of the printed newspaper. Now, a growing number of local publishers are cutting back on their print editions, pointing to rising costs and arguing consumers will prefer the immediacy and convenience of online news.

The numbers still pale in comparison with print’s heyday, but the increase is giving some publishers an unusual feeling: hope.

The Washington Post is powering up its coverage of the online world by hiring Taylor Lorenz, The New York Times tech reporter whose stories on influencer culture and social media trends helped usher the Gray Lady into the 21st century. The star reporter with a massive online following thinks the Post gets the internet in ways other outlets don’t.

Chicago Public Media, which owns WBEZ-FM, the local NPR affiliate, announced Monday it completed a deal to buy the Chicago Sun-Times, the punchy tabloid with roots that stretch back to the mid-19th century. Final terms were not disclosed.

More than 200 newspapers are suing Facebook and Google, alleging that the tech titans have unfairly manipulated the advertising market, siphoning away their revenue and crippling their businesses. The lawsuits are being filed on behalf of some 30 different companies.

Alden Global Capital, the New York hedge fund that bought Tribune Publishing this year, said on Monday that it was making an offer for another big American newspaper chain, Lee Enterprises, the publisher of 90 daily newspapers including The Buffalo News, The Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Omaha World-Herald.

The strategy underway in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Little Rock, Ark., highlights the papers’ enduring reliance on older subscribers.

At a moment of political turmoil, economic change and a pandemic-driven focus on how we work, labor has become a hot news beat. Above, The Chief-Leader, a newspaper covering New York City’s civil servants, has an unlikely new owner: a California vintner.

Inside Alden Global Capital — The model is simple: gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices and wring out as much cash as possible.

The death of local news story much ballyhooed in journalism circles says more about the arrogance of local newspapers than the industry’s actual state. But TV stations need to heed an important lesson in the narrative and cast themselves as trusted local partners, not authoritative gatekeepers of information.

Circulation revenue, from people buying digital or print subscriptions, reached $11.1 billion in 2020, according to a Pew Research Center report. The newspaper industry reported $8.8 billion in ad revenue last year.

Despite all the impassioned pleas to salvage local news coverage, the reality is there’s a demand-side problem.

Today, some of the largest newspaper groups in the country —such as Tribune, McClatchy and Media News Group — are owned, controlled by or in debt to hedge funds or private equity groups. In fact, hedge funds and other financial firms control half of the daily newspapers in the United States.

Terry Jimenez, the chief executive of Tribune Publishing, owner of the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, has been fired in the wake of the takeover by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Heath Freeman, president of Alden, was named president of the newly formed Tribune Enterprises, with Alden controlling all seven board seats.