“Beginning: A pulse-pounding new chapter in the startling saga of the publisher called Tribune.”
BOWIE, MD — The Bowie Blade-News’ publication has come to an end after 41 years of business.
The call to cut the newspaper was made just two months after Tribune Publishing, the parent company of The Baltimore Sun Media Group, was purchased by Alden Global Capital for $633 million.
The New York City-based hedge fund was granted majority ownership for all Tribune newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun, Bowie Blade-News, Capital Gazette, Carroll County Times and The Aegis.
The New York Times also carried the story.
The Bowie Blade-News, a 41-year-old weekly newspaper in Bowie, Md., published its final print edition on Thursday, two months after its parent company, Tribune Publishing, was sold to the New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital for $633 million.
Elsewhere, the Chicago Tribune announced changes:
As a careful reader, you will notice some changes to our print edition starting with Wednesday’s paper.
The biggest change is that we have shuffled the sections to focus the main section on our local news and opinion journalism, as well as obituaries and death notices.
We also have introduced a new, multitopic section that leads off with Nation & World news. That new section will be the second of three sections most days. That’s where we have moved our national and foreign stories and photos.
We’ll still have roughly the same amount of news space dedicated to our journalism as opposed to advertising. We measure that in column inches, and that total will be roughly the same.
© Editor and Publisher/Rob Tornoe
There are glimmers of hope.
Gannett has sold 23 publications back to local owners
It’s part of a larger trend of chains selling off local newsrooms
From Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative:
In the wake of the Gannett-GateHouse merger in November 2019, Gannett is selling off some of its smaller news outlets. And industry observers are watching for what comes out of Alden Global Capital’s recent acquisition of Tribune Publishing and whether any of Tribune’s news outlets will end up in the hands of local owners.
At one point in the Tribune negotiations, a group led by Maryland hotel executive Stewart Bainum was expected to take over the Baltimore Sun as part of the Alden deal, but the Bainum group ran into disagreements with Alden and tried to join with investors in Tribune’s other markets to put together a rival deal in which those outlets would go back to local owners. That effort failed, but since Alden is a hedge fund, no one thinks it’s averse to buying and selling in the future.
Poynter has a follow-up report:
During the pandemic, more than 70 newsrooms in the U.S. closed, leaving the communities they served with merged newsrooms based in other cities or no local newspapers at all.
But a new piece examines the fate of local newsrooms that are moving in a different direction — back into local hands.
top image by Michael Ploog; © Conan Properties
