NY Daily News Taken Over By Hedge Fund In Massive Newspaper Deal

NEW YORK, NY — A controversial hedge fund has bought New York City's "hometown paper" after being approved Friday to take over one of the country's largest newspaper chains, according to reports.

Shareholders of Tribune Publishing, which owned the Daily News, approved the takeover by hedge fund Alden Global Capital on Friday.

The $630-million deal means that Alden, which already owned one-third of Tribune, takes control of all of its papers, including the Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant, according to AP News.

Journalists at the News and several of Tribune's other papers had lobbied against the purchase based on Alden's reputation for slashing newsrooms to reap profits

"An Alden takeover is sure to mean a trail of laid-off journalists, contracted newsrooms, and shadow newspapers unable to cover local news and inform their communities," journalist Larry McShane wrote in an opinion piece in the News earlier this month.

McShane and others had begged other deep-pocketed New Yorkers to rescue the paper from the Alden deal.

Alden — which also owns the Boston Herald, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News — became Tribune’s largest shareholder in 2019, according to AP. Friday's deal makes them the second-largest newspaper owner in the United States, according to the News.

“The purchase of Tribune reaffirms our commitment to the newspaper industry and our focus on getting publications to a place where they can operate sustainably over the long term.” said Heath Freeman, president of Alden, in a statement to AP.

The deal did come with a possible "wrinkle" given one top shareholder's decision to abstain, according to NPR. The shareholder, Patrick Soon-Shiong, is required to vote in favor for the transaction to pull through and his abstention is counted as a vote against the deal, the outlet reported.

"It is not clear whether those assessments were changed ahead of the vote," NPR wrote. "Nonetheless, most parties were proceeding with the assumption Alden prevailed."