Alden Global Looks to Buy Newspaper Publisher Lee Enterprises

Hedge fund, which recently acquired Tribune Publishing, offers Lee $24 a share

Alden Global Capital’s deal earlier this year for Tribune Publishing brought newspapers including the Chicago Tribune under the hedge fund’s umbrella.

New York hedge fund and U.S. newspaper consolidator Alden Global Capital LLC has made a proposal to take Lee Enterprises Inc. private in a deal that values the company at around $141 million.

On Monday, Alden Global offered to purchase the Davenport, Iowa-based media company, which has news operations in 77 U.S. markets, for $24 a share in cash. Lee’s shares closed Friday at $18.49 and were up 46% so far for the year. On Monday, shares in Lee jumped 27% to $23.40.

In a statement later Monday, Lee Enterprises said it had received Alden’s bid and would review it.

The bid to buy Lee Enterprises marks the third major acquisition effort by Alden in the past two years, following a failed bid to acquire USA Today owner Gannett Inc. in 2019 and a successful move to purchase Baltimore Sun owner Tribune Publishing this year. Alden Global has been criticized by its employees and industry experts for aggressive cost-cutting, but its executives say the reductions help preserve newspapers.

Lee, whose publications include the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Arizona Daily Star in Tucson,expanded last yearwhen it bought Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s media-group newspaper business for $140 million. At the time, Lee was already managing dozens of newspapers for the company.

Around the same time, MNG Enterprises Inc., a company backed by Alden, said it bought a 5.9% stake in Lee and planned to discuss the company’s strategy with its management.

“We believe that as a private company and part of our successful nationwide platforms, Lee would be in a stronger position to maximize its resources and realize strategic value that enhances its operations and supports its employees in their important work serving local communities,” Alden Global said in a letter to Lee’s board of directors.

Lee Enterprises is one of a few American newspaper chains of considerable size not owned by Alden Global, whose MediaNews Group unit is the publisher of roughly 70 daily newspapers, including the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News.

The hedge fund has forged an American media empire over the past decade by acquiring newspapers and imposing aggressive cost reductions that critics say amount to gutting local journalism.In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2020, Mr. Freeman said he never closed a paper, though he has merged titles to cut costs.

Alden Global in 2019 clashed with USA Today publisher Gannett Co. when it made a bid to acquire the publisher and said that its management team hadn’t demonstrated it was capable of running the company effectively. Gannett rejected the bid and prevailed in a resulting proxy fight, retaining control of its entire board.

Meanwhile, Alden Global was building up its position in another eventual target: Tribune Publishing Co., which it eventually acquired earlier this year despite a rival effort led by hotel executive Stewart Bainum. The deal,which valued the company at $635 million, brought publications such as the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News under Alden’s umbrella.

Jim Friedlich, chief executive of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the nonprofit owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, said he expects Alden’s bid for Lee Enterprises to be successful in part because of the offer’s substantial premium.

“While Alden’s cost-reduction practices have been widely criticized in the news business, no one can doubt their resolve and perseverance in completing deals once they show up at the table,” Mr. Friedlich said.

Brent Baird, an investor who said he owns roughly 2% of Lee Enterprises, said that he hasn’t decided yet whether he supports Alden Global’s bid for the newspaper group. He said he bought the stock after Lee Enterprises purchased the Buffalo News from Berkshire Hathaway.

“I didn’t buy my stock thinking that this was going to happen,” Mr. Baird said of Alden’s bid for Lee. “I bought the stock because it seemed reasonably priced.”

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian hackers infiltrated Lee’s computer systems as part of a broader effort to spread disinformation about the 2020 presidential election.