Alden Capital continued its drive to own as much of the American newspaper industry as it can with a bid Monday to acquire Lee Enterprises, a publicly traded chain of 75 daily newspapers and several hundred other outlets, states Poynter.

Lee’s largest papers include the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Arizona Daily Star, The Buffalo News, the Omaha World-Herald and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The latter three were part of Warren Buffett’s BH Media, acquired by Lee in January 2020 when the billionaire decided to exit the business, continued the Poynter report.

Alden acquired Tribune Publishing just this summer, states Poynter,  “after a contentious battle with a private investor group that tried unsuccessfully to mount a competing bid. That brought the Chicago Tribune and other major metros like The Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel into the Alden fold, which already included The Denver Post and groups in northern and southern California.

“The hedge fund has developed a reputation for slashing staff in newsrooms and other departments and selling off real estate at outlets it owns. It announced cuts at Tribune as soon as the deal closed. Besides investing little in news, it lags the industry in technology upgrades.”

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