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Your Call

Media roundtable: What happens when hedge funds buy newspapers?

Denver Post
This illustration shows the original Denver Post staff members still remaining from a 2013 Pulitzer celebration photo.

  On this edition of Your Call's media roundtable, we'll discuss what happens when hedge funds and private equity firms buy newspapers. In many cases, they lay off dozens or hundreds of journalists, leaving the public with a shadow of the local news coverage they once had.

Some journalists are organizing and fighting back. They are calling for local buyers to step up, and want the public service mission of newspapers to be fulfilled.

Guests:

Jason Blevins, former Denver Post writer

George Kelly, breaking news reporter with the East Bay Times

Laura Rodriguez, HOY Chicago reporter

Web Resources:

 

Alden Exposed

 

NewsMatters

 

Hedge Fund Sued Over Bay Area Newsroom Layoffs

 

“As vultures circle, The Denver Post must be saved”

 

Saving the Free Press From Private Equity

 

Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local journalism it might not want to stop anytime soon

 
 

Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.