Statement on Tribune Publishing sale

This is a dark day for American journalism. Journalists, readers, philanthropists, politicians and policymakers should pay close attention to what just happened at Tribune Publishing.

Tribune shareholders voted to approve the sale of some of the country’s oldest and most storied newspapers to Alden Global Capital, a known destroyer of newsrooms for profit. If there’s a hedge fund that has led a local newsroom to greatness, we haven’t heard of one. But we also know that industry predators like Alden Global Capital are just symptoms of a bigger disease, whose root problems must be confronted head-on. 

As the old economic models that sustained professional journalism wither, the keys to the newsroom doors have been handed to detached, faraway investors whose fund managers pursue debt-bloated, newsroom-slashing deals that benefit themselves and no one else. We cannot accept that this is journalism’s future. We must protect the public’s right to know, and we urge the public and policymakers to join us in that fight.

We must also address Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision not to block the Tribune Publishing deal, which we had urged him to reject.

In a great many ways, Dr. Soon-Shiong has been and continues to be a model owner for the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune. He spent a great deal of money to tear us away from derelict and detached corporate ownership. He invested in our newsroom, hired more than 100 journalists to cover long-neglected beats at the Times, and started paying fairer wages under our Guild contract. He has been patient as we have suffered losses in the first years of his ownership. He has seemed earnest in addressing inequities that have long plagued the Times newsroom. He has respected our collective editorial independence as professional journalists. We welcome his latest hire as editor of the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Merida, as a sign of his continued seriousness and commitment to our newsroom.

But we vehemently disagree with his stated rationale for not intervening in the Alden takeover vote of Tribune Publishing, which has allowed the sale to proceed the same as a “yes” vote would. When investors are passive, the vultures are active. We stand now with our Guild colleagues at Tribune Publishing as they face a future they fought so bravely to prevent.

-Executive Committee of the Media Guild of the West, NewsGuild-CWA Local 39213

Media Guild of the West, a local of the NewsGuild, represents 450 unionized journalists and media workers at the Los Angeles Times Guild, as well as hundreds more journalists and media workers in newsrooms in Southern California, Arizona and Texas.