Vultures circle Virginia newspapers
A feature story in The Atlantic last month dubbed Alden Global Capital “the hedge fund killing newspapers.” On Monday, Alden announced that it’s hoping to acquire Lee Enterprises, which owns 13 newspapers in Virginia, including The Daily Progress, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and The Roanoke Times.
The acquisition should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about local news. In a letter announcing the offer, Alden wrote, “our interest in Lee is a reaffirmation of our substantial commitment to the newspaper industry and our desire to support newspapers over the long term.” The firm’s actions over the last decade suggest the exact opposite is true.
Alden owns more than 200 newspapers. After acquiring a paper, it follows a standard model: “Gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices, and wring out as much cash as possible,” McKay Coppins writes in The Atlantic. That plan turns a quick profit for Alden, and has turned venerable institutions like The Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune into hollow husks of their former selves.
In recent years, Progress staff have unionized, in an effort to maintain some autonomy as the newspaper industry further consolidates. “Lee Enterprises is pretty terrible,” tweeted Nolan Stout, a former Progress reporter, “but this would be even worse.”
Atlanta’s Dewberry rots, too
The pile of steel on our Downtown Mall isn’t the only half-finished building owned by John Dewberry that’s rotting on prime real estate. In Atlanta’s desirable Midtown neighborhood, a 21-story office tower called the Campanile has been falling into disrepair for the last two years. “The neglect is starting to show,” reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week. “Weeds grow through a chain link fence. Sheets of protective plastic wrap are peeling off the building’s exterior.” Sound familiar?
Dewberry says construction on the project will resume by Christmas. But Atlantans are skeptical: Dewberry has developed a reputation there for leaving desirable properties unfinished, earning himself a 2017 Bloomberg profile dubbing him “Atlanta’s Emperor of Empty Lots.” Meanwhile, here in Charlottesville, the peeling advertisement on the front of the downtown building still says “Coming spring 2009.”
In brief
Anti-vaxers out at hospital
UVA Health lost 121 of its more than 7,000 employees because they refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine, which was required by November 1. Thirty-nine employees resigned, 64 were fired, and 18 were suspended without pay for refusing to comply. In total, the system has lost 38 nurses and two doctors, reports Charlottesville Tomorrow. UVA Health’s spokesperson says the system anticipated some degree of noncompliance and has been able to manage the losses.
Dominion pays up
The State Corporation Commission and Dominion Energy have agreed on a settlement in which Dominion will dish out $330 million in refunds to customers. The average Dominion Energy user is in line for a $67 refund (in the form of bill credits), and will see their monthly bill decline by 90 cents in the coming years. The settlement averts what could have been a contentious case between the corporation and the state attorney general’s office, which alleged that the energy company had been taking in excess profits over the last three years.
Students protest Rittenhouse verdict
About 200 UVA students and members of the Charlottesville community chanted “no justice, no peace, no racist police” as they marched from the UPD station on the Corner to Carr’s Hill on Saturday afternoon, in protest of the verdict in Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial. Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday on all five counts brought against him after he shot and killed two men and injured a third during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020. Saturday’s demonstration was organized by student groups such as the Black Student Alliance and the Young Democratic Socialists of America at UVA, and included a series of speakers.