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Why local journalism must be considered infrastructure
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Why local journalism must be considered infrastructure

Local news serves our critical information needs, particularly regarding vital issues such as vaccines, elections and public safety. The newspaper industry, still our primary source of original reporting, has lost well over 50 percent of its workforce since the early 2000s, leading to hundreds of closures and news deserts across the country. No longer commercially viable, local journalism’s devastation will only worsen in the coming months and years. Yet infrastructures must be maintained regardless of their profitability and such glaring market failure should necessitate government intervention. Public goods, after all, require public investments. Unfortunately, we often take such democratic infrastructure for granted, leading to neglect and disinvestment over time.

Why local journalism must be considered infrastructure

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Alden Clashes With Billionaire Over Future of Tribune—and of Local News
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Alden Clashes With Billionaire Over Future of Tribune—and of Local News

Alden’s approach to newspapers is to dramatically expand profit margins through cost-cutting, combining services, outsourcing and selling off real estate. Its newspaper company, closely held MediaNews Group, which publishes some 70 daily papers including the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News, had a profit margin of 17% in 2017, according to a person familiar with the matter. By contrast, the New York Times Co. ’s margin was under 1% that year, while Gannett Co. came in at 1.7%, according to public filings. Alden has declined to disclose more-recent numbers. Between 2012 and January of this year, MediaNews Group cut staff by 76% at its 11 unionized papers, including the Denver Post, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the San Jose Mercury News, according to the News Guild, a union that represents newspaper employees. At the Norristown Times-Herald in Pennsylvania, staff was reduced to just five from 45.

Alden Clashes With Billionaire Over Future of Tribune—and of Local News

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The battle for Tribune: Inside the campaign to find new owners for a legendary group of newspapers

Last year, as a group of Baltimore Sun reporters embarked on a long-shot endeavor to find a new owner that could save their paper from a hedge-fund takeover, a former Maryland politician gave them a piece of advice. Treat this like a political campaign.

The battle for Tribune: Inside the campaign to find new owners for a legendary group of newspapers

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Orlando Sentinel pleads for white knight investors,
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Orlando Sentinel pleads for white knight investors,

The Orlando Sentinel on Friday published an editorial beseeching white knight investors to rescue the newspaper from a hostile takeover that Alden Global Capital has been pursuing for the paper’s parent company Tribune Publishing. In the unusual public call for support, Sentinel editors express contempt for Alden, their potential corporate owner, and characterize the moment as existential for the newspaper’s future.

Orlando Sentinel pleads for white knight investors,

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Missouri Paper Prints Blank Front Page To Show Readers What’ll Happen If It Shutters
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Missouri Paper Prints Blank Front Page To Show Readers What’ll Happen If It Shutters

The front page of Kansas City’s Northeast News was left blank earlier this week in an effort to show readers what it would be like if the publication ceased to exist — and, as it turns out, the strategy proved quite effec

Missouri Paper Prints Blank Front Page To Show Readers What’ll Happen If It Shutters