The Press Democrat, the longtime local newspaper of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, has been sold to MediaNews Group, a newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital, an investment firm based in Manhattan.

The sale has raised alarms among North Bay journalists and residents, who fear that the company will continue its pattern of buying newspapers and then slashing staff. KQED’s Gabe Meline joins us to discuss the sale and its potential impact on the local media landscape in the North Bay.

Correction: The description of Alden Global Capital has been updated.

Links:

Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat Was Just Sold. Locals Are Concerned For the Paper’s Future

This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.

[ad fullwidth]

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:24] Well, Gabe, you live in the North Bay in Santa Rosa. I mean, how would you characterize the role that the press democrat plays in the local news ecosystem out there?

Gabe Meline [00:01:37] I mean, it’s invaluable. The PD is certainly the longest-running and it’s just been especially invested in the local community. It reflects what’s happening in the community, but sort of also creates its own community itself, you know. Its comment section can be a real town square of, you know, local concerns. And, you just the paper of record. Like, you know, there’s the saying that newspapers are the first draft of history. I believe that to be true, and the PD’s archives are the story of Santa Rosa.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:26] For people who maybe aren’t familiar, what areas of the North Bay does the press democrat really cover?

Gabe Meline [00:02:34] It’s headquartered in Santa Rosa, but it covers all of Sonoma County. It has expanded into Napa County recently. It also covers a lot of what’s referred to as the North Coast, you know, up into Mendocino County. It was started in 1897 by Ernest Finley, and it’s been in the same family for years, the Finleys and then the Persons owned it up until 1985. Then it was bought by the New York Times, and the New York Times had it until 2012 when they sold it to this company called Halifax, which, you know, really all they did was put it up for sale and tell reporters that they couldn’t wear jeans to work. And then less than a year later, it was bought by Sonoma Media Investments, which is a local ownership group. It was seen when they bought this as like a return to local ownership. Saving the paper from corporate overlords, it was a real feel-good story.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:38] Which brings us to now and why we’re talking about the paper today, which is because there are some big changes coming to it. I mean, what happened, Gabe? Tell me about the announcement.

Gabe Meline [00:03:54] The Press Democrat has been sold to Alden Global Capital. Their model is, you know, to buy distressed, troubled companies, sell them for parts, guide them into bankruptcy if need be, with the goal being profit at any cost and not long-term sustainability. Least of all, not journalism.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:19] I mean, my mind kind of goes to, okay, another local paper maybe not doing so well. I mean do we know anything about why it was sold?

Gabe Meline [00:04:32] The PD has been healthy as for why Sonoma Media Investments sold it. One part of that ownership group, Doug Bosco said to the SF standard that, you know, that the investor group is getting older and that they had been discussing a possible sale and, you know, selling it to another company.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:53] Was this a surprise or did people at the paper see this coming?

Gabe Meline [00:04:57] The people that I talked to were completely shocked. I mean, I was completely shocked

Hunter Paniagua [00:05:01] Pretty disappointed all around, to be quite frank.

Gabe Meline [00:05:04] KQED also spoke to Hunter Paniagua, the staff rep for the union representing the Press Democrat’s editorial staff.

Hunter Paniagua [00:05:12] Both disappointed in the way that the SMI owners went about doing business with Media News Group to complete that sale, doing so without notifying us at all.

Gabe Meline [00:05:24] Another big shock to the newsroom is that it had been reported and everyone was expecting that the press democrat would be sold to Hearst, which also owns the Chronicle and more than 20 other papers around the country. And Alden was really held up as this boogeyman, like this doomsday scenario. You don’t want to be sold Alden, you don’t wanna be sold the Alden. And then they did it anyway.

Hunter Paniagua [00:05:49] And so not only are we disappointed in that part of it, but also just concerned about what it means to lose local ownership and it being handed over to a group that has the reputation that Media News Group does and Alden Global Capital that runs them.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:08] Coming up, we’ll hear more about Alden Global Capital and what this sale could mean for readers. Stay with us.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:22] So it sounds like one of the bigger surprises here is who the newspaper was sold to. What do we know about Alden Global Capital MediaNews Group? Who are they?

Gabe Meline [00:06:35] Alden Global Capital, nobody really knows who Alden Global Capital is. The co-founders are Randall Smith and Heath Freeman. They don’t give any interviews, you know, barely any photos of them exist online. In 2011, they started buying up newspapers nationwide and they now own or manage more than 300 other publications around the country. In the Bay Area, their media news group owns the San Jose Mercury News. East Bay Times, formerly the Oakland Tribune and the Marin Independent Journal, and they are notorious for just routing out newspapers. The Oakland Tribune, which was renamed the East Bay Times by Alden Global Capital, they won a Pulitzer in 2017 for their coverage of the Ghost Ship Fire and a week later they laid off 20 people.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:07:30] I mean, what has been the reaction from reporters and journalists in the Press Democrat newsroom?

Gabe Meline [00:07:38] I would say a mixture of sadness and anger.

Phil Barber [00:07:43] Well, we’re stunned collectively as a newsroom.

Gabe Meline [00:07:46] KQED also talked to a Press Democrat reporter, Phil Barber, who commented on just what a complete surprise this sale was.

Phil Barber [00:07:54] We were not told or notified about this at all from our current management. We found out when everybody got an email from the news media group.

Gabe Meline [00:08:06] The newsroom also learned about this by email, and the email went to a lot of reporters’ junk inboxes. So a lot people just thought it was a joke until a meeting happened to be called later that day.

Phil Barber [00:08:19] We were sort of blindsided by it and we have a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainty. Let’s be honest, Alden has a well-established track record of flashing jobs, flashing positions, and roles that are executed in newsrooms. So we’re very worried about that.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:08:53] And I mean, has media news groups said anything about what this change is gonna mean for the paper?

Gabe Meline [00:08:59] You know, contacted by KQED, Media NewsGroup said that they were “honored to bring a newspaper of such high quality as the Press Democrat into their company. We appreciate the importance of local news and information to the communities where we publish, and we’re proud to expand our commitment to Northern California and the North Bay.” Someone from MediaNews group visited the Press Democrat and sort of said all the right things. And you know, we’re not out for clicks. We’re out for subscribers. But the reality is, the staff has a contract through August 2026, and then after that, all bets are off. MediaNews Group can implement these changes or any reduction in staffing or cuts, you know, as much as that contract will allow over the next year and change. But, you know after that who knows?

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:54] I just have to imagine that part of the concern for journalists here is what this is going to mean for readers and people who rely on the Press Democrat for news.

Gabe Meline [00:10:10] You know, Alden’s model, via media newsgroup, their model is shared resources, shared content, share, share, which is, you know, code word for do more with less. There are certain, like, administrative functions at the PD that are gonna be gone. I assume the HR department will be gone, you now, these employees that know the staff intimately well. Um, the copy desk, uh, you know, will probably shift to a shared model and the copy, those are the people that know the difference between Sebastopol road and Sebastopol Avenue. Like, you, they’re the taxi drivers of this community. They, they know how to get things right and they save reporters a lot of headache. As for reporters and especially as for enterprise reporters, investigative reporters with smaller staff, you can do less of it. And there’s just so much to cover up here.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:11:08] I mean, as someone who lives out there, Gabe, what big questions and concerns, I guess, do you have about this sale moving forward?

[ad floatright]

Gabe Meline [00:11:19] Any community which has seen their local newspaper slim down or contract, which is to say like every community in America, is that much more prone to corruption among elected officials, unfair treatment of marginalized people, backroom deals, just an uninformed population. What newspapers do and what the PD has done so well is that they connect the dots of the complicated ways that your community works. And they explain it to you clearly and they tell you when it’s being done poorly or wrong. I was the editor of the local Alt Weekly up here for about five years, and it was my job to criticize the Press Democrat. They made it hard, you know, but the reason that we criticize the press Democrat is because they’re important, is because we want to hold them to a high standard, is because they are necessary for the health of our city.

News Daily Newsletter

The Bay

Emma’s Must-Sees

Videos from KQED Live

Donor-Advised Funds

press democratpress democrat

A New York Investment Firm Just Bought Sonoma County's Local Newspaper