Now that talks have broken off between Tribune Publishing and hotel magnate Stewart Bainum, the newspaper company’s journalists are hoping for a miracle to derail a $634 million bid by cost-cutting hedge fund Alden that will give it control of the New York Daily News, the Hartford Courant, the Chicago Tribune and other Tribune papers, The NY Post reports.
“Everybody is nervous,” said Liz Bowie, a 30 year veteran of the Baltimore Sun and a rep for the Newspaper Guild union at her paper.
For the past six months, Bowie has been talking with Guild representatives at other Tribune papers papers also represented by the union. They have formed a group they call Project Mayhem in an effort to help come up with the money Bainum needs to beat Alden, including by networking with deep-pocketed people who might be interested in teaming up on a bid.
They’ve been doing this in part by holding events to raise awareness, which they hope will lead to new investors. Three weeks ago, for example, Bowie spearheaded a “Save Our Sun” rally.
Bainum buying Tribune versus Alden, Bowie lamented, is “the difference between winning the lottery and ending my career in journalism.”
Alden Global Capitol’s $634 million offer is the only offer left on the table ahead of a May 21 shareholders to vote on the $17.25-a-share offer. A competing $681 million bid by Bainum evaporated when his investment partner, Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, bowed out after initially offering $18.50 a share for the company.
Bainum, according to sources, is scrambling to find new deep-pocketed buyers to join him in a long-shot effort to restart his bid.
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