• by Ray Schultz , August 31, 2023

Alden Global Capital is in full acquisition mode again: Its firm, MediaNews Group, has acquired Times-Shamrock Communications, owner of four daily newspapers including The Times-Tribune of Scranton, The Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre, The Republican Herald of Pottsville, and the (Hazleton) Standard-Speaker, along with several weeklies and a printing operation, AP reports.

Terms were not disclosed. 

The hedge fund has been criticized for gutting newsrooms. Last year, it lost in an apparently hostile attempt to take over Lee Enterprises. 

Some members of the selling family are opposed to the sale. 

“We remained confident and hopeful that our current board of directors and management team would have been able to lead us through the industry’s headwinds more effectively and humanely than a hedge fund like Alden,” former publisher George Lynett and his children said in a statement, according to AP.

They added, “Selling to a company with such a devastating reputation in the industry runs against everything we believe in.”

In July, MediaNews acquired The San Diego Union-Tribune from The Los Angeles Times for an undisclosed sum. As part of that transaction, La Jolla Light, was also acquired.

Alden acquired Tribune Publishing, publisher of The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and numerous other newspapers, for a reported $633 million in 2021.