Waldman called on the Justice Department to examine the deal for its impact on communities. We just can't keep accepting these mergers as if there’s nothing we can do abt them.” "We should view this latest as a wake-up call. “What we have seen in the past, especially with Alden, is that it has led to cuts in reporting staffs, and worse and worse coverage of communities in many cases," said Steve Waldman, president of Report for America, an organization that places journalists in local newsrooms, including The Associated Press. About one-fourth of the country’s newspapers have closed n the past 15 years, according to research from the University of North Carolina.Īlden said Monday that its offer for Lee is a “reaffirmation of our substantial commitment to the newspaper industry and our desire to support local newspapers over the long term.”īut local-news advocates take a different view of Alden and other financial firms' ownership of local papers. Newsroom jobs dropped nearly in half from 2004 to 2018, according to Pew Research, and the pandemic has exacerbated those stresses. The newspaper business has been consolidating as it struggles with a digital transition and shrinking revenues, and financial firms like Alden have taken an increasingly prominent role as owners. Alden also owns the Denver Post, Orange County Register and Boston Herald.Īlden has a reputation for slashing costs, including selling off newspapers' real estate, that go even beyond the newspaper industry’s overall turn in that direction. Alden scooped up the Tribune papers earlier this year in a deal that was bitterly contested by the Tribune company's own journalists and community leaders in Tribune's markets, who sought, ultimately without success, to find local buyers for papers including the Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune.