Free Republic

In an interview last year, Mr. Freeman argued that the austere cuts enacted at his newspapers reflected a more realistic understanding of the industry’s direction and better positioned Alden-owned publishers for the pandemic’s downswing. “We were prepared for a real step down in terms of a recession because we were honest about what was needed in the future,” he said. “Numbers don’t lie.” The newspaper industry’s numbers looked bleak even before the pandemic. Annual advertising revenue dropped 70%, or $34 billion, between 2005 and 2018, according to estimates by the Pew Research Center. More than 1,800 newspapers closed between 2004...

Dahleen Glanton, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, published an article Monday in which she likened President Donald Trump to the Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck in an infamous fatal encounter. Though Minneapolis is a Democrat-run city, and Trump immediately condemned Floyd’s death, Glanton portrayed Trump as a symbol of American racism:

UPDATE: Sources say the paper is not closing. But they are getting out of their lease as only a half dozen people have been coming into work, the rest of the skeletal staff if working from home. “They want to find a new smaller space by November 1st,” I am told. But for New York’s hometown paper not to have a home is very distressing. My source stressed: No layoffs. (There aren’t many left to lay off.) EARLIER REPORT: The New York Times reports that the Daily News is basically dead, even if it will continue on like the Walking...

Tribune and McClatchy are both approaching critical deadlines that could lead to mergers, divisions — or even the first big nonprofit newspaper chain in the United States. ======================================================================= The next 48 hours may decide the fate of two of America’s largest newspaper chains that collectively serve almost a fifth of all American local newspaper readers. And what happens in those hours could prompt a wave of other moves across the rest of the industry. The dates June 30 and July 1 have called out from the calendar for a while now. On Tuesday, Tribune Publishing will reach the end of...

Tribune Publishing and the Chicago Tribune Guild agreed to furlough all unionized Chicago Tribune newsroom employees making over $40,000 for three weeks. The furloughs, a cost-saving measure, will be taken in one-week increments from May through July. Furloughed employees will continue to receive health benefits, as well as unemployment insurance, but no salary. Furloughs for nonunion employees across the company were announced last month, when Tribune Publishing also implemented permanent pay cuts of up to 10% for nonunion employees making $67,000 a year or more. Tribune Publishing -- which owns the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the New York...

After instituting pay cuts across its nonunion employees earlier this month, Tribune Publishing announced it will furlough employees across the company. Staffers will take three-week furloughs in one-week increments between May and July of this year to “ensure financial stability,” but will retain health benefits during those periods. Furloughs effect nonunion employees who make between $40,000 and $67,000 per year, the Chicago Tribune reports. As an alternative to a furlough, employees have the option of receiving a severance package and leaving the company. The move comes as the company experiences a further decline in advertising revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic....

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx described “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett as a “washed up celeb who lied to cops” in texts messages released Tuesday by her office in response to a public-records request by the Chicago Tribune. Foxx compared Smollett’s case to her office’s pending indictments against R&B singer R. Kelly in text messages to Joseph Magats, her top assistant, on March 8, the paper reported “Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16 (counts),” she wrote. “… Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should.”

Nazi Salutes Jewish Deli Menu The cartoons on the catering menu for Highland Park's Max's Deli are raising eyebrows, as intended. 0 By Jonah Meadows (Patch Staff) - Updated August 31, 2017 3:39 pm ET HIGHLAND PARK, IL — A North Shore deli's catering menu for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur was adorned with caricatures of a Nazi and a Sasquatch in response to the hate and violence on display this month in Charlottesville, Virginia. The frowning, blond-haired, uniform-clad figure wears an "I'm with Alt-Right" T-shirt and a swastika armband and salutes Hitler beside a menu in the style of...

As Fox News Sidles Left, Sinclair Broadcasting Moves In Broadcasters you likely never heard of are possibly attempting to move in on Fox News and take some of their conservative viewership. Fox News has potential competition from another right-leaning media network. Sinclair Broadcasting is buying up 42 of Tribune Media’s broadcast stations for nearly $4 billion dollars, raising speculation that the conglomerate is prepared to compete with Fox News for their Republican and Libertarian audience. With Tribune’s 42 TV stations, Sinclair will cover more than 70 percent of households in the United States. It will become the largest local broadcast...

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. is buying Tribune Media Co. for about $3.9 billion, a deal made possible after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted last month to ease a limit on TV-station ownership in the U.S. Sinclair will pay $43.50 a share to gain Tribune TV stations in big media markets like New York, Chicago and Miami, strengthening its hand in negotiations with pay-TV distributors and major broadcast networks like 21st Century Fox Inc. The marriage of Sinclair and Tribune, two of the largest local TV station owners in the U.S., creates a U.S. broadcasting behemoth to face down online...

Controlling "exactly what people think" is the job of the media, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski boldly declared Wednesday morning. While discussing President Trump's entreaties to the American people to remain skeptical of the press, Bzezinski worried that if the economy turns south, Americans may end up trusting him over the media. "And it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think," Brzezinski said. "And that, that is our job." SCARBOROUGH: "Exactly. That is exactly what I hear. What Yamiche said is what I...

I am sorry to have to do this, but as a representative of the mainstream media, I hereby declare war on GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz. In the media's defense, Cruz started it. Literally. -- snip -- Strap on your boots, Teddy boy. We're comin' for ya now. And we've got the weapon you fear the most: the truth.

Austin Beutner, the publisher and chief executive of The Los Angeles Times, is being dismissed Tuesday, with no replacement immediately named, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Beutner, a politically connected former investment banker who went on to become a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, was to be informed Tuesday morning but the news had leaked in advance of the meeting, said one person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive matter. News of the impending departure was first reported by the website Capital New York. The news came after internal dissent between...

So, who’s this Alix Bryan person? Well, as she puts it in her Twitter bio, she’s “1/3 of a kick-ass web and social media team @CBS6” in Richmond, Virginia. -snip She’s also a model citizen who took it upon herself to report the wildly successful GoFundMe campaign for Memories Pizza for fraud — despite the fact that she had no evidence whatsoever: Alix Bryan        ✔ @alixbryan Are you kidding me? Indiana pizzeria raises $17k in an hour by being bigoted? http://www.gofundme.com/MemoriesPizza  7:33 PM - 1 Apr 2015 Alix Bryan        ✔ @alixbryan I have reported the GoFundMe for Memories Pizza for fraud. Just in case. http://www.gofundme.com/contact?t=donation_page_report&url=MemoriesPizza … 7:46 PM -...

The Christmas season comes each year with the expected flurry of media attention to the biblical accounts of Christ’s conception and birth. The general thrust of the secular media is often incredulity toward the fact that so many people still believe the Bible’s accounts to be true. This year, the Pew Research Center released a report on Christmas Day indicating that almost 75% of the American people affirm belief in the virgin birth of Christ. Meanwhile, the Public Religion Research Institute found markedly lower levels of belief, with just under half affirming the historical accuracy of the biblical accounts. The...

Tribune Co., the parent of the Los Angeles Times, unveiled a restructuring plan that will slash nearly 700 jobs over the next year. [Snip] The cutbacks indicate that the newspaper division is bracing for another drop in advertising in 2014, analysts said. Print ad revenue fell nearly $200 million in the last two years and an additional $62 million in the first nine months of this year.

Charles and David Koch are no longer contemplating a purchase of the Tribune Company’s chain of newspapers, a spokeswoman for the billionaire industrialists said on Thursday. The spokeswoman, Melissa Cohlmia, affirmed a report by the conservative news Web site The Daily Caller that said Koch Industries — where Charles is chairman and chief executive and David is an executive vice president — had concluded that the acquisition was “not economically viable.” But other acquisitions in the media industry might be: “Koch continues to have an interest in the media business, and we’re exploring a broad range of opportunities where we...

Reports that Koch Industries is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Co.’s newspapers has Orlando’s far left in a lather over the prospect of losing “its” paper. The Orlando Sentinel is one of several Tribune newspapers, which also include the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the Sun Sentinel. Florida Watch Action organized a rally Thursday in front of the Orlando Sentinel’s offices to “fight back” against the dastardly billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, arch enemies of all things progressive...

LA Weekly on Tuesday published a story about a rumored purchase of the Tribune Company by the Koch Brothers. As you might imagine, this has gotten great attention in the media world: The latest rumor about the next owner of the L.A. Times, which is for sale, is a doozy. A bombshell. It's a doozy wrapped in a bombshell exploding inside a Drudge siren. Multiple sources tell L.A. Weekly that Charles and David Koch -- the infamous right-wing billionaire brothers -- are considering an offer on either the Tribune Co. newspaper group, which includes the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune...

U.S. media giant The Tribune Co, owner of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, said late on Sunday it will emerge from bankruptcy on December 31, ending four years of Chapter 11 reorganization. Chicago-based Tribune said it will emerge from the Chapter 11 process with a portfolio of profitable assets that will include eight major daily newspapers and 23 TV stations. The company will also have a new board of directors. "Tribune will emerge as a dynamic multi-media company with a great mix of profitable assets, powerful brands in major markets, sufficient liquidity for operations and investments and...