• by Ray Schultz , July 23, 2023

Less than two weeks after Alden Global Capital acquired The San Diego Union-Tribune, the exodus of talent has started. 

Jeff Light, editor and publisher, served his last day there on Friday. In addition, roughly a dozen other Union-Tribune employees were set to leave as part of a buyout program, the Union-Tribune reports. 

Managing Editor Lora Cicalo will continue to run the newsroom as a succession plan is developed, it adds. 

Patrick Soon-Shiong announced July 10 that he and his family were selling the Union-Tribune to Alden. Soon-Shiong continues to own The Los Angeles Times.

Founded in 1868, The Union-Tribune was acquired by Tribune Publishing in 2015, and bought by Soon-Shiong in 2018 in a deal that included the L.A. Times. 

The Union-Tribune will be run by Alden affiliate MediaNewsGroup.

Light joined the Union Tribune as editor in 2010, and in 2016 also became publisher. Prior to that, he served at the Orange County Register for 17 years, as deputy editor and later vice president for interactive publishing.

In a farewell email to staff, Light wrote, ““For 13 years, my idea of the company was that we could all work together, shoulder to shoulder, directed only by our shared love of our work, our belief in one another and our ability to learn together. People who have read the Union-Tribune for the last decade are the ones who know the value of our work.