
Chicago Tribune has laid off five
members of the Chicago Tribune Guild and three non-members -- roughly 10% of the newsroom staff -- in what the union calls “a failure of leadership by Alden Global Capital, our hedge fund owner,
and local management.”
The layoffs included reporters who covered housing, food and the Bears and three non-union editors, according to the Chicago
Sun-Times.
“There’s no bright side in this,” the Guild comments in a letter to members, the Sun-Times reports. “It’s a
critical blow to the work we do and believe in. It hurts our readers. It’s a disrespectful, stupid decision by the small men who own this paper that will harm us and people we
love.”
The staff cuts coincided with Alden making a premium offer to buy The Dallas Morning News, competing with a bid by Hearst.
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Alden’s MNG
Enterprises is offering a price of $16.50 per share in cash for the DallasNews Corporation, the parent company of The Dallas Morning News. But Hearst has a binding
agreement to buy the company for $14 per share.
The layoffs also follow a buyout offer to the Tribune staff. Only one person took it, according to
the Sun-Times.
Alden Global Capital acquired Tribune Publishing for $633 million in 2021, and has made other acquisitions since then. It has been accused of gutting
newsrooms.
“The pain we feel today is made worse by our local managers’ silence through this whole process,” the Guild added. “And it’s made worse yet again
by Alden’s new effort to pay around $100 million to buy another newspaper, proof that this is all about one thing: greed.”