In today’s media, there’s a fight for clicks, ratings, and subscriptions. Despite fighting to generate revenue from content, there are moments where media outlets do put the rivalries aside for the greater good of journalism, like what’s occurring in Chicago.
The Chicago Sun-Times reporter Andy Grimm, who’s also the president of the Chicago News Guild union, wrote a piece pleading for someone to save its competitor, the Chicago Tribune, from being acquired by hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
“This is an odd thing to do in the pages of the Chicago Sun-Times, but I’m asking someone to buy the Chicago Tribune,” Grimm wrote. “No, don’t rush to a news rack or start a subscription. Buy the entire newspaper, lock, stock, and ink barrels.”
Stockholders of Tribune Publishing, owners of the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, along with other newspapers around the United States, will vote on May 21 if they want to accept Alden’s bid to acquire the company.
Grimm wrote that Alden isn’t interested in investing in the company or local journalism and only wants to extract as much value from the newspapers.
“Alden is widely regarded as the worst of a class of owners who regard newspapers as assets to be stripped, with profits put ahead of providing readers with the news and information a community needs to function,” Grimm wrote.
There’s some hope for the Chicago Tribune. Baltimore hotel billionaire Stewart Bainum has a separate offer on the table to buy Tribune Publishing, saving several newspapers from Alden’s ownership.
Nonetheless, Bainum’s endgame is to donate the Baltimore Sun and other Maryland papers to a nonprofit organization. As for the Chicago Tribune, Bainum hasn’t found a Chicago resident to take the newspaper off his hands.