• by Ray Schultz , May 25, 2021

It’s all over but the crying.

Despite statements that it would not happen until late June, Alden Global Capital has completed its $633 million purchase of Tribune Publishing. 

And that prospect did not daunt Chicago Tribune reporter Robert Channick from responsibly reporting the development, based on forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Based on those filings, Channick also reports departing Tribune Publishing CEO Terry Jimenez received “$1.734 million in equity compensation, restricted stock units and options Monday, part of a $2.5 million golden parachute compensation package” — not a large amount as such things go. Also, three other non-Alden board members and the company’s interim CFO were handed payouts.

The company announced in an email to employees on Tuesday that ownership had changed, the report continues. 

At the same time, Tribune Publishing has been delisted from the stock market.  

Alden now owns the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant,Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia, and the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia. 

Newsroom staffers are now waiting for the next likely development: layoffs in the already profitable company. 

An earlier report in the Tribune described Alden as “a hedge fund with a history of deep cost-cutting at its other newspaper properties.” 

That article continued: “The hedge fund has come under fire for sweeping layoffs at its newspapers. The flashpoint was the March 2018 news that the Denver Post, which Alden has controlled since 2010, was going to lay off 30 employees in a newsroom that had already shrunk from 250 to less than 100 staffers.”