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Op-Ed: How to stop hedge funds from wrecking local news
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Op-Ed: How to stop hedge funds from wrecking local news

With Alden Global Capital’s recent acquisition of the Tribune Publishing newspaper chain, the country has reached a troubling milestone: Half of the daily newspaper circulation in America is now owned by hedge funds. This is a real threat to democracy, because hedge funds and private equity firms have a track record of cutting the reporting staff of local newsrooms to increase profits. We must stop viewing this trend as inevitable. We need to confront it head on, including with public policies.

Op-Ed: How to stop hedge funds from wrecking local news

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The pandemic devastated newsrooms. Now they’re seeking help from Congress.
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The pandemic devastated newsrooms. Now they’re seeking help from Congress.

“One of the concerns and one of the realities for us probably is that however compensation is going to be directed, the media with the larger audiences will get a larger share of the compensation,” Rush said. The NewsGuild, a union representing more than 25,000 journalists, also is watching the bill. But the union refuses to support it until language is added to ensure that at least 60% of any additional revenue earned is tied to jobs, NewsGuild president Jon Schleuss said. The issue, Schleuss said, is that the journalism industry is seeing increasing consolidation, and many financial actors do not care about investing in local news. If the bill passes as is, news companies would not have a legal obligation to use money they earn to keep local journalists employed. “Whatever added revenue needs to be tied to jobs,” Schleuss said. “It can’t go to executive compensation. We can’t have stock buybacks, we can’t have dividends. It needs to go to jobs.”

The pandemic devastated newsrooms. Now they’re seeking help from Congress.

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Pulitzers can’t save local journalism
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Pulitzers can’t save local journalism

NINE OF THE TEN newspapers that won Pulitzer Prizes for local reporting over the last decade experienced some form of cutbacks over the past year, according to data collected by the Tow Center and CJR. Three prize-winning outlets implemented layoffs, and four had their print runs affected, with pay cuts and furloughs scattered throughout. Some cuts have been restored; others haven’t. In many ways, these statistics are unsurprising; staggering numbers of local publications were shaken by the destabilizing effect of the pandemic, and few were left untouched. Still, it’s telling that even those papers that have won national recognition and acclaim for the importance and excellence of their journalism also found—and find—themselves on unstable ground.

Pulitzers can’t save local journalism

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Local News Coverage Is Declining — And That Could Be Bad For American Politics
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Local News Coverage Is Declining — And That Could Be Bad For American Politics

In our research we found that less local news meant more polarization. Then, with a little luck, we were also able to study the other side of the coin — whether more local news could actually bring people together.

Local News Coverage Is Declining — And That Could Be Bad For American Politics

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The local news crisis will be solved one community at a time
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The local news crisis will be solved one community at a time

Though the collapse of community journalism is real enough, we believe that its causes are only partly understood. Researchers generally focus on the changes wrought by technology over the past quarter-century — changes that tell an important story, but not the whole story.

The local news crisis will be solved one community at a time