Credit: Google Maps
The hedge fund that owns The Advance of Bucks County and Trentonian made major business news Tuesday.
Alden Global Capital, known for making deep cuts to newspapers across the country while bringing in healthy profits, announced Tuesday evening that they were purchasing Tribune Publishing Company, the company that owns the Lehigh Valley Morning Call, which often covers Upper Bucks County, the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and other regional papers.
Advertisements
Alden Global Capital already owned shares of Tribune Publishing Company, but they are purchasing the remaining shares. Axios reported the deal is worth $630 million and two papers in Maryland will be split off and go under local ownership.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.
Alden Global Capital owns hundreds of daily and weekly papers – ranging from small to large – across the country through its MediaNews Group arm. The acquisition creates one of the largest local news publishers in the country.
Advertisements
Alden Global Capital owns The Advance of Bucks County, which covers the central and lower portions of the county. The newspaper is weekly and previously included the Bristol Pilot, Yardley News, New Hope Gazette, and Doylestown Patriot, but those publications were shuttered over the years. The Advance of Bucks County now has an office in Montgomery County, but previously maintained ones in Newtown and Bristol Township.
The Advance of Bucks County and Trentonian, which covers some Bucks County news and sports, have seen a number of cuts over the years.
Advertisements
The long-speculated purchase of Tribune Publishing Company sent ripples through the news industry because Alden Global Capital has a reputation for making cuts at its newspapers.
Bucks County’s only two daily newspapers – the Bucks County Courier Times and Doylestown Intelligencer – are owned by Gannett and have seen drastic cuts since they were sold by locally-owned Calkins Media in 2017. Gannett, which is shifting to focus on subscription revenue and local business services, plans to outsource 485 business-side jobs to India this year.
Bucks County is served by a number of locally-owned publications, including LevittownNow.com, the Bucks County Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Delaware Valley News, and WBCB News.
Advertisements
The New York City-based Patch.com network of site also covers several area towns.
