The Chicago Tribune Offers Buyouts To Newsrooms

Two days after hedge fund Alden Global Capital completed its $633 million acquisition of Tribune Publishing, the new owners of the Chicago-based newspaper chain are offering newsroom employees a buyout.

The paper reports the voluntary separation plan was sent Wednesday to nonunion newsroom employees at the Chicago Tribune and other Tribune Publishing newspapers. The offer includes 12 weeks of pay for eligible employees with three or more years of continuous service, plus an additional week of pay for every year with the company. Eligible employees with less than three years of service would receive eight weeks of pay under the plan.

Tribune Publishing is required to negotiate any buyout offers for union newsroom employees directly with the local guilds that represent them, according to Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-Communication Workers of America, whose local chapters represent the Chicago Tribune and other Tribune Publishing newsrooms.

Alden completed its purchase of Tribune Publishing late Monday, taking the Chicago-based newspaper chain private after the $17.25-per-share buyout was approved Friday by shareholders. The hedge fund immediately saddled the formerly debt-free Tribune Publishing with two loans totaling $278 million, removed CEO Terry Jimenez and installed Alden President Heath Freeman to lead the company.

A New York-based hedge fund with a reputation as one of the industry’s most aggressive cost-cutters, Alden becomes the second-largest newspaper owner in the U.S. behind Gannett. Alden also owns MediaNews Group, whose larger newspapers include the Denver Post, San Jose (California) Mercury News and the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press.

Last year, Tribune Publishing employment fell by 30%, dropping from 4,114 employees at the end of 2019 to 2,865 employees at the end of 2020, according to the company’s annual reports. The company had a total of 896 newsroom employees across its eight markets entering this year.