Top pipeline of local journalists is saying no to hedge funds

Kim Kleman, executive director of Report for America, said these profit-oriented financial institutions are not the answer to the challenge of how to sustain the news business.

“Hedge funds owning local newsrooms is not a business model that we support,” she told The Washington Post. “America has seen the consequences: staff layoffs and local news coverage.”

This means some major chains, including Gannett and Tribune Publishing, will no longer accept new reporters from the Report for America unit, but reporters currently assigned to newsrooms will finish their assignments. be able to.

Clement first publicly commented on the decision at an industry committee meeting last week. He said the program is “very strategic and we have to be very careful about who we work with” given the overwhelming demand by newspapers to host reports for U.S. military members. Ta.

To date, Report for America has placed 607 journalists in approximately 339 newsrooms, including nonprofit organizations, local businesses, and public media outlets. Initially, the organization will pay half of journalists’ salaries, and participating news organizations will pay about a quarter.

Approximately 15 percent of these members (as they are called) have worked for media outlets owned or affiliated with hedge funds, including 21 current journalists. .

Gannett spokeswoman Lark Marie Anton declined to comment on Report for America’s publication, but insisted the company is invested in local journalism. Representatives for Tribune Publishing did not respond to requests for comment.

Some journalists and industry insiders welcomed the decision. Margot Saska, a journalism professor at American University, said it “takes a long time.”

Such newsroom paychecks are simply “supporting the corporations most responsible for destroying America’s newspapers,” he says in his recent book, Hedge: Private Investment Funds Are Destroying America’s Newspapers and Democracy. said Saska, author of “How We Helped to Undermine the World.”

But others expressed concern Monday that reporters working at hedge fund-related newspapers could be hit by the loss of members who fill staffing shortages and report on undercovered issues and communities. expressed.

“Yes, this makes no difference to greedy hedge fund owners who have a negative impact on hardworking journalists and the communities they deserve to serve who are already suffering under hedge fund ownership.” No. Great, good.” Elizabeth Hernandez wrotea reporter for The Denver Post, part of Alden Global Capital’s MediaNews Group.

The union representing Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is owned by the same conglomerate, wrote about X: Dear owner. ”

Although it can be difficult to quantify success, corps members have published about 60,000 articles, and 82 percent remain in the journalism world after their mission ends, Clement said. their mission.

“We’re not only contributing to the growth of the pipeline, but also to its maintenance,” she said.

Reports for America’s Leaders previously argued that working with hedge fund-controlled publications would help it achieve its mission of supporting local communities by providing trusted local news.

Report for America sent some of its staff to publications owned by Tribune Publishing, such as the Baltimore Sun, but Kleman said that after it became clear that Alden Global Capital would acquire the company. It has almost ceased its activities.

The McClatchy newspaper chain, owned by Chatham Asset Management, has decided to discontinue its participation in Report for America in 2021, the Columbia Journalism Review reported in the same year. That comes months after the program’s co-founder, Stephen Waldman, penned an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times accusing hedge funds of “destroying local news.”

“Their entire business model is based on maximizing profits, often for a very small number of investors,” Saska said. “The losers in the game are the citizens who depend on the local journalism these companies control across the country. This is truly an American tragedy.”

Clement said that despite her organization’s decision to “phase out” hedge fund-managed newspapers, she wished those organizations and journalists the best of luck.

“We support these newsrooms. Our entire staff will support them. We support the people doing local journalism, no matter who owns them,” she said. I did.