Jan. 15—By Lorraine Mirabella — lmirabella@baltsun.com
PUBLISHED:January 15, 2024 at 6:05 p.m.| UPDATED:January 16, 2024 at 10:20 a.m.
The Baltimore Sun, the largest newspaper in Maryland, has been acquired in a private deal by David D. Smith, executive chairman of Hunt Valley-based television station owner Sinclair Inc.
Smith said Monday that he acquired Baltimore Sun Media on Friday from investment firm Alden Global Capital, marking the first time in nearly four decades that The Sun will be in the hands of a local owner.
Smith decided to personally buy the newspaper, along with the Capital Gazette papers in Annapolis, Carroll County Times, Towson Times and several other Baltimore-area weeklies and magazines, because of the publications' focus on local news in the Baltimore area.
"I'm in the news business because I believe ... we have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest," Smith said in an interview. "I think the paper can be hugely profitable and successful and serve a greater public interest over time.
"We have one job, to tell the truth, present the facts, period. That's our job."
Heath Freeman, president of Alden, did not respond to a request for comment Monday, but the deal was confirmed in a statement from Alden's MediaNews Group. Alden bought The Sun as part of its $633 million acquisition of the Chicago-based Tribune Publishing newspaper chain in May 2021, becoming the second-largest newspaper owner in the U.S.
"We are always open to discussions about local ownership and pleased that our preeminent newspaper operating and technology platform will continue to provide services for The Baltimore Sun," said Guy Gilmore, MediaNews Group's chief operating officer, in an email.
While the newspaper's ownership has changed, nothing will change for its customers. Local news will be gathered, ads can be placed and papers will be delivered. Over time, Smith said, customers can expect more content focused on their communities.
Smith would not disclose how much he paid for Baltimore Sun Media. He purchased the newspaper group independently of Sinclair, which is known for its ownership of television stations and local news programming across the U.S. and a recent failed foray into regional sports network ownership. The Sinclair empire started with Baltimore's WBFF Fox 45 television station.
Through his purchase of The Sun, Smith said he aims to help turn around a struggling newspaper industry, a decline he blamed on the industry's inability to adapt to a changing market and to the internet, which has upended consumption and delivery of news and advertising.
He said he believes he can grow subscriptions and advertising for The Sun and its other publications by focusing more heavily on local and community news and investigations, boosting the use of video and social media, and integrating technology in ways other print media companies have been unable to do.
Smith criticized "mainstream media" in general for focusing on issues he said affect only a few people as opposed to those affecting greater numbers, adding that he finds it "curious that the mainstream media in this town often chooses not to cover things that affect everybody," in particular concerning problems and corruption in government.
He said his first step will be to meet with staff and management of The Sun and its affiliates Tuesday to begin to understand the publications' mission and operations and start discussions around future vision.
"We understand the importance of strong public service journalism and holding the region's politicians and others in power accountable," Trif Alatzas, The Sun's publisher and editor-in-chief, said Monday. "That has been part of Baltimore Sun Media's DNA for generations. We look forward to working together to make our organization even stronger."
Smith said he intends to invest in the business but will need to spend time learning about the operations and where resources are needed.
For now, he said he plans to retain the service agreements that Alden had in place with Tribune Publishing for newspaper design, human resources, accounting and other backroom functions. At some point, he said he would discontinue those agreements and the newspaper group would operate as a stand-alone business.
"While this news came as a surprise, we are eager to learn more in the days to come," said Christine Condon, The Sun's environmental reporter and unit chair of The Baltimore Sun Guild, which represents reporters, photographers and advertising staff at the newspaper. "The Sun has a proud history of journalism that holds the powerful accountable, and we would expect any new owner to help us preserve those values."
Smith said he became interested in buying the media group about two years ago but a deal never happened.
"The passage of time has driven me to become more focused on it, and it just seemed like the right time, so I made the deal," said Smith, who said he began regularly reading The Sun only a few months ago.
Smith said he will be joined in the newspaper venture by one partner, with an undisclosed share of ownership: Armstrong Williams, a well-known conservative political commentator who hosts a nationally syndicated television show on Sinclair network affiliates.
The Sun has been owned by out-of-town conglomerates since 1986 when the A.S. Abell Co., which had ties to the Abell family that founded The Sun, sold the paper to Times Mirror, a Los Angeles-based media company that included the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and other publications. Tribune Co., which owned the Chicago Tribune, bought Times Mirror in 2000. After filing for bankruptcy in 2008 and moving through a series of leadership changes since then, Tribune Publishing was purchased by Alden in 2021 and taken private.
Baltimore Sun Media has more than 150 employees and publishes seven other community publications. The Sun and its sister news organizations have more than 230,000 paid subscribers across print and digital platforms.
Though his Sun deal is independent of Sinclair, Smith, that company's executive chairman and former CEO, said he envisions opportunities for partnerships between The Sun and Sinclair, such as promoting each other's stories, and other synergies in the future.
Sinclair's Fox 45 television station was started 53 years ago by Smith's father. WBFF-TV began as a UHF channel in 1971 and focused in part on children's programming with morning and afternoon cartoons during the "Captain Chesapeake" show. The company added news programming in 1991 and is now one of Baltimore's top television stations.
Smith praised Fox 45 and other Sinclair stations' news reporting as balanced and apolitical.
"While we're not perfect, we seem to be doing much better than a lot of folks do," he said.
The company has been criticized for requiring its affiliates nationwide to air conservative programming and editorial content, though many conservatives argue that most newspapers are too liberal.
While Smith has been an active political backer of Republicans, he said he's focused on good government. He financially backs a Baltimore City organization that bills itself as grassroots and pushes for a more accountable and transparent city government. In 2022, People for Elected Accountability and Civic Engagement successfully passed a ballot measure requiring term limits for the city's mayor, comptroller and City Council. It's also been pushing for another ballot measure that would allow voters to petition for a recall vote for those officials.
A spokesman for Sinclair said Monday that Smith made the acquisition with his personal assets and that "Sinclair Inc. has no involvement with the transaction. Mr. Smith will continue to be our executive chairman and chairman of the board."
Smith's announcement comes after decades of wealthy individuals and institutions in the Baltimore region who tried unsuccessfully to buy the state's largest publisher of newspapers, websites and magazines but were never successful. While discussed for years, no local buyer ever was able to secure a deal for the news organization, which was started by A.S. Abell in 1837 as a penny publication for the masses.
As recently as 2021, former state senator and Choice Hotel chairman Stewart Bainum Jr. attempted to buy The Sun or secure financing for its parent Tribune Publishing, owner of the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and other major newspapers. Unable to reach a deal, Bainum instead started the nonprofit Baltimore Banner website with his own millions.
Smith, who grew up in Baltimore and is a graduate of Baltimore City College high school, joins a small group of other wealthy individuals who in recent years have purchased their hometown news organizations or other publications, saying they hope to revive the sagging businesses, which have suffered from declining revenue in part due to powerhouses such as Google, Facebook and others who control the lion's share of digital advertising. Readers for decades have shifted to digital news sources thanks to mobile and social media platforms.
Billionaire businessman Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018 hoping to free the company from then-Tribune's cost cutting. And Amazon.com founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013 and used his expertise in retail technology to make investments. While both men expanded staff and invested in journalism since those purchases, the news organizations continued to suffer from declining revenue and have announced cutbacks during the past year.
The Sun is one of the country's most historic titles. Baltimore Sun Media has earned 16 Pulitzer Prizes during the years, most recently in 2020 for its investigation of former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and the University of Maryland Medical System. The (Annapolis) Capital was awarded a special Pulitzer citation a year earlier for its coverage of the June 2018 shooting attack on its Annapolis offices that killed five colleagues. Baltimore Sun Media's journalism has been recognized with six Pulitzer nominations since 2015.
This article has been updated to correct Heath Freeman's title and the MediaNews Group name. The Sun regrets the errors.
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