Chicago Tribune Staffers Seeking New Ownership

Reporters at the Chicago Tribune are trying to find a new owner for their newspaper, reports CNN Business.

They're doing it because they're afraid of Alden Global Capital's plans for all of the papers owned by Tribune Publishing.

Alden, a New York-based hedge fund, recently became the largest shareholder in the struggling publishing company. Alden has a terrible reputation in the newspaper industry due to its history of slashing jobs and sucking up short-term profits from other papers it controls.

"We're doing everything in our power to try to stop them," Gary Marx, a 31-year veteran of the Chicago Tribune, told CNN Business.

Over the weekend Marx and another one of the Tribune's top reporters, David Jackson, came out with an op-ed warning about the pernicious influence of Alden. "Unless Alden reverses course — perhaps in repentance for the avaricious destruction it has wrought in Denver and elsewhere — we need a civic-minded local owner or group of owners. So do our Tribune Publishing colleagues," they wrote.
There is a history of local newspaper rebellion against Alden. In 2018 the Denver Post published editorials and columns deriding the hedge fund and calling for a shift to local ownership.

But despite those protests, Alden still controls the Post. Some of the paper's writers and editors left and launched a digital news outlet called the Colorado Sun.

Jackson and Marx are trying a similar tack by seeking out local ownership. They told CNN Business on Monday that they've already been reaching out to potential buyers for the past few weeks. Some of their newsroom colleagues are also involved in this informal effort.

"There have been some expressions of interest," Jackson said.

Alden increased its ownership stake in Tribune to 32% last November. Hundreds of Tribune staffers responded with a letter decrying the hedge fund.