“Woodward! Bernstein! Get in here!" shouted actor Jason Robards, who played Washington Post editor Ben Bradley in the movie All the President's Men. "You guys are about to write a story that says the attorney general – the highest law enforcement agent in the land, is a crook!”
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1976 and made a career in journalism look incredibly cool. Forty-five years later, the field has lost much of its luster, especially at papers owned by Lee Enterprises. Rick Edmonds is an analyst at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
“Lee has a reputation, I think pretty well earned, for running lean operations," he explains. "When they acquired BH Media, which owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch and some other papers, they trimmed some of the staff there.”
Alicia Petska is chair of the newspaper guild in Roanoke. She joined the Times’ staff before Lee took over and watched as that company cut its payroll.
“We lost more than 40% of our newsroom staff," she recalls. "We went from 64 people to 37.”
Times reporter Alison Graham says the workload has grown steadily as beats were combined, and some subjects, such as primary, secondary and higher education, no longer get regular coverage.
Lee also consolidated many supporting jobs like editing and circulation.
“They moved all of our design to a central hub in the Midwest," she remembers. "It’s things like that that make you think that they’re not trying to make the product better, but when you compare them to Alden, they look like saints!”
Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund that hoped to buy 77 newspapers now owned by Lee. It offered $24 a share, tempting owners with a 30% premium, but the firm had made big cuts in the newsrooms of papers it acquired, including the Virginian-Pilot, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the Denver Post, and – where possible -- sold their buildings.
“It’s typical of hedge funds that they have some very specific areas of specialization," Edmonds says. "Real estate is one for Alden. The newspaper properties very often are in pretty strategically valuable locations.”
Alden was also known for raising prices at a time when many newspapers were doing better financially – selling digital subscriptions and Sunday ads.
“The Sunday paper is still quite a profitable product. It gets a lot of what advertising is left, and it’s the day of the week when people have more time to read,” says Edmonds.
But Graham pointed out that Alden was not known for investing its profits.
“They’re cutting immediately. They sell off the real estate and jack up the subscriptions prices while not delivering a better product, not investing any of those cost-savings into the local newsroom.”
The attempted takeover prompted 12 unionized newsrooms to write an open letter to Lee’s Board of Directors warning that Alden lies when it claims to have a commitment to the newspaper industry. Again, reporter Alison Graham.
“Actions speak louder than words. and they have never shown anything that would make anyone believe that.”
She, Petska and other reporters and editors begged Lee not to sell, and took to social media hoping to mobilize the public in support of their cause. Thursday, they announced a victory as Lee’s board voted unanimously to reject the Alden offer, but this battle may not be over. Alden could return with a better offer, so members of the newspaper guild also said they would continue to stand with their communities to fight for local news at every turn.
