Alden’s strategy of acquiring struggling local newsrooms and stripping them of assets has built the personal wealth of the hedge fund’s investors. But Alden has imposed draconian staff cuts that decimated The Denver Post and other once-proud newspapers that have been vital to their communities and to American democracy. In a signal of what may happen in Chicago, on Jan. 13, we and other newsroom staff members were offered buyouts. The Chicago Tribune was founded in 1847, and ever since it has played an outsize role in the national conversation. The Tribune has won 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and the other newspapers in our chain have claimed 37 more.

Source: New York Times January 19, 2020 17:03 UTC