Hedge fund seeks to buy rest of Tribune Publishing

A hedge fund that owns a big stake in Tribune Publishing Co. is seeking to buy the newspaper chain behind titles including the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, reports Cara Lombardo, Dana Cimilluca and Lukas I. Alpert of The Wall Street Journal.

Lombardo, Cimilluca and Alpert report, “Alden Global Capital LLC, which is already Tribune’s largest shareholder with a 32% stake, has expressed interest in acquiring the shares of the publishing company it doesn’t own already for $14.25 a share, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares closed Wednesday at $12.79. The offer was made Dec. 14.

“The Wall Street Journal first reported Alden’s plans late Wednesday.

“Tribune has a market value of roughly $470 million after a yearslong slide as the prospects for local newspapers dim. Its shares are little changed this year and were up 8.8% premarket on low volume.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.