His commentary on, All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2023, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3. But it had also received complaints from some of its partners and customers. To control pricing, he bought all lots on both the north and south sides of the street. What I can expect in the next few months and for the rest of the year, Chicago Tribune Guild president and courts reporter for the paper, Megan Crepeau, says, is a strong newsroom, a united front, because now we know exactly the kind of dirty tricks and exactly the kind of ways that they want to gut us., NEW AT CJR: Kayleigh McEnany, media critic, TOP IMAGE: Journalist George Kelly protesting Alden Global Capital outside the hedge-fund's headquarters in New York, in May 2018. By the end of that week, a team of more than a dozen reporters had written investigations and narrative reconstructions of the night of Oaklands deadliest fire and the lives of its victims. Many Palm Beach buyersbuy a house and then weigh their options, whether it's renovating, makingplans tobuild a new custom home orusing the house as a home base whilethey shop for something else. Singleton declined to comment further on Aldens principals or whether the fundwould try to consolidate its newspaper holdings. D. Smith & Company, whose office near Wall Street fittingly overlooks the Trinity Church graveyard, the, wrote, is profiting from other peoples misery by trading the stock and debt of troubled companies, both for itself and its customers., Smith founded a successor company, Alden Global Capital, in 2007. Randall Duncan "Randy" Smith (born 1942) is an American hedge fund manager, and the founder and chief of investments of Alden Global Capital. The chief executive of Odey Asset Management has resigned, Portfolio Adviser has learned, marking the second senior departure from Crispin Odeys hedge fund business in a month. (Randall Smith started making these purchases in 2013, a year after he acquired the Digital First Media newspaper chain, spending $57 million on 16 mansions. . Smith founded a successor company, Alden Global Capital, in 2007. Under the circumstances, one can only infer what Alden likes about the news industry and what next steps in its strategy may be. Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. Even in the close-mouthed world of hedge fund investment, Randall Smith, the principal of Alden Global Capital, gives new meaning to the euphemism low profile.. Given their decades of experience working with bankruptcy and distressed assets, Smith says he and his father like to determine a buildings fire sale value before deciding to buy. Dana Bash will replace John King as the anchor of Inside Politics. King will report on voters in battleground states heading into the 2024 election. , Alden had been responsible for 23,584 American job losses, through PayLess, Freds, and its newspaper empire. , had won rave reviews for its shrewd research. The same day, his wife Barbara gave exactly the same amount. "We may see a situation in which neither side accepts losing and that conflict could be bad," says Ray Dalio. Randall D. Smith is Alden Global Capital's Chief of Investments. Jen Psaki continues her strong TV start with comments about Tucker Carlson and Fox News. Their coverage won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. But Aldens track record whether it takes over newspapers, shoe stores or pharmacies proves otherwise. While solidly Republican, the Smiths previous donations were typically in the $2000 range, though back in 2012 Randall did give $19,750 and $30,800 to two Republican committees. Tight supply, big demand and the consequences for Palm Beach real estate. , under ownership of the Bay Area News Groupwhich is, in turn, owned by MediaNews Group. Its real-estate transactions, in particular, are difficult to trace. I still had hair down to my ass, Smith says. After some debate, the elder Smith gave his son the reins in 2003 and the go-ahead to operate Spire as he saw fit. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith. Keep in mind, though, that the distressed investment specialists have a stomachfor risky positions most investors wont go near. Im hoping to be the Trammell Crow of the 21st century, Smith says. In addition, it operates Tribune Content Agency, a syndication and licensing business that provides daily news service and syndicated premium content to approximately 2,000 media and digital information publishers. So who is Randall Smith and what does he want with all these newspapers? He is from American. He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1965, followed by an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. The most recent stock trade was executed by Michael Norman Lavey on 2 April 2021, trading 1,875 units of TPCO stock currently worth $32,363. There are no older and 9 younger executives at Tribune Publishing. His father, Randy, got a job with Bear Stearns, where he launched its bankruptcy and and distressed-debt division. They seek out distress, Reynolds says, and suck out what they can before whatever it is dies., They dont care one way or the other about journalism, says Chase. He also. We share the belief that Americans need and deserve robust local journalism that operates with editorial independence, he wrote. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. In 1998, he acquired the Bryan Tower, a 40-story downtown office building in Dallas, Texas, and his son Caleb Smith oversaw the renovation for his father's company Spire Realty, which he now runs. Stockholm (HedgeNordic) Swedish asset manager Coeli Asset Management has announced the liquidation of Coeli Multi Asset after learning of a major investors intention to redeem all investments in Bill Ackman called for President Joe Biden to consider sending US troops to defend Ukraine in a post on Twitter Monday. This article first appeared on Feb. 4, 2020, on the website of dfmworkers.org. Palm Beach real estate investor Barbara Stovall Smith and her financier husband, Randall Smith of Alden Global Capital, have used a shell company to sell an investment property on the North. Randall D. Smith is many things, but he's not a man who's ever showed an interest in protecting journalism. Tribunewhich analysts and union officials believe is already acting under Aldens influence, though Freeman denies this in his letterhad tried to implement even heavier cuts. Well count down the biggest leases and sales in our Real Estate Annual. Hedge fund titan Clifford Asness joined traders in slamming the London Metal Exchange after the platform cancelled trades a move that may have helped stem losses at a fund that was short the metal New York hedge-fund firm Aravt Global LLC is shutting down after sustaining significant losses recently, a sign of the severe pain the selloff in growth stocks is inflicting. Mr. All rights reserved. And so one has to wonder what benefits would another four years of Trump provide Alden? Alden, a hedge fund, got into the newspaper business about a decade ago. October 10th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, March 29th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, March 11th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, March 10th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, March 2nd, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, February 28th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, February 23rd, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, February 15th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, January 28th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, January 24th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, January 10th, 2022 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, December 21st, 2021 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, December 16th, 2021 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading, December 9th, 2021 - Hedge Funds Insider Trading. Denver Post, Boston Herald, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Orange County Register, Macomb Daily, The Trentonian, The Saratogian, Los Angeles Daily News, The Pottstown Mercury. He is a founding member of Alden Global Capital LLC, a private investment firm based in New York. Get our editors daily picks straight in your inbox! Randall took a draft deferment, earned an MBA, and landed a job at Bear Stearns, where he would come to be an early pioneer in distressed asset investingthe Wall Street euphemism for pulling the last of the money from failing companies. Could it be that Smith, like Puzder, fears that legislators efforts to make private equity more transparent are actually a conspiracy to punish the successful?, Puzder maintainsthat private equitys goal is always growth and value creation, not bankruptcy.. Some editors have already left. A 1987 Time profile reportedthat he is a graduate of Cornell University with a Wharton MBA, who started his career with Bear Stearns in 1967. Mr. Smith has been investing in event driven, value and emerging market securities for more than 50 years. Its real-estate transactions, in particular, are difficult to trace. He entered the house into the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Serviceon Sept. 19 at $6.95 million and the deal closed about five weeks later. Then newspaper buildings are sold, and staff is consolidated and cut. They won, the committee determined, for relentless coverage of the deadly fire, and for reporting after the tragedy that exposed the citys failure to take actions that might have prevented it., The staff celebrated with champagne and was, momentarily, uplifted. He is a founding member of Alden Global Capital LLC, a private investment firm based in New York. [1] Early life [ edit] Smith was born in 1942. Freeman, who is the president of Alden, runs its daily operations. Smiths mother died of ovarian cancer, and he moved home to help take care of his younger sister. His father replied, Whoever dies with the most money.. They include the Denver Post, Boston Herald, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Orange County Register, Macomb Daily, The Trentonian, The Saratogian, Los Angeles Daily News, The Pottstown Mercury, Chico Enterprise-Record, Boulder Daily Camera, and many more. Randall Smith is 77, he's been the Director of Tribune Publishing since 2020. Smith ultimately assembled six contiguous blocks between Ross Avenue and Federal Street. [2] Its managing director is Heath Freeman. Mr. Smith has been investing in event driven, value and emerging market securities for more than 50 years. With offices in New York City, Dallas, Houston, Dubai, London and Mumbai, Randall Smith's Alden Global Capital has grown to become a surprisingly big player in the media space, particularly in distressed newspaper companies. Despite earning higher profits than is typical in the industry, the NewsGuild says that between 2012 and 2019, Alden cut seventy-one percent of jobs in the hedge funds Guild-represented newsrooms. This investment philosophy helps explain why Alden also owns a $143 million position in Gannett, smaller stakesin A.H. Belo, McClatchy, Media General and Journal Communications. Randall Duncan "Randy" Smith is an American hedge fund manager, and the founder and chief of investments of Alden Global Capital. (Minnetian was Aldens pick for the board of Tribune Publishing after the hedge fund took a 32 percent stake in the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other papers.). Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 81 years old? The duo aims to create a project that will transform downtown Dallas, and they refuse to compromise their vision. The union launched an ultimately failed campaign to attempt to unseat Aldens board members. To put it simply, the 2014 US Supreme Court ruling in McCutcheon v. FEC allows larger aggregate contributions to candidates as long as a certain cut of the money is diverted to the party. Newspapers and other media companies are a major part of its portfolio but it has also bought shares offinancial companies like Citigroupand the debt of third-world countries. According to its 990s, Knight ended up making $185,000 over five years on its initial $13.4 million investment. As Smith climbed the ladder at Bear Stearns, and the couple raised a boy and a girl in Short Hills, New Jersey, he started, a new investment firm, R.D. MarketScreener: Created by Investors for Investors! The one central theme, the Times reported, seems to be that Smith and its web of affiliates are out, first and foremost, for themselves., R. . And it has taken positionsin Sinclair Broadcasting, LIN TV, Nextstar, and Canadian company,Postmedia. Although theyre actively marketing The Spire to prospective office tenants, the developers are under no pressure to break ground, as the parking lots are already producing income. Journalists of Springfield News-Leader Vote Unanimously: Union, Yes! Randall Smith Bio, Returns, AUM, Net Worth With offices in New York City, Dallas, Houston, Dubai, London and Mumbai, Randall Smith's Alden Global Capital has grown to become a. Many reporters. Nor could I locate a published photo of Smith or his exact age (roughly 68, I think). Caleb asked. Both provided Alden's office in Manhattan's Lipstick Building as their address. [2] [3] By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. It is in the ownership group that bought Philadelphia Media Network last year and the group likely to own Tribune Co. once it emerges from bankruptcy. David Resnick, who represented MediaNews Group in their debt restructuring with Alden around 2009, says he visited the Alden office many times during the deal but never once saw Smith. Randall Smith was born in 1942. Its all about the spreadsheets and the numbers. Paul Huntsman, who bought a newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune, back from Alden, says the attitude is common among hedge funds. As the industrys recent dire circumstances focused minds on the business of news, including those of lawmakers, Freeman broke with Smiths strategy of avoiding the spotlight, and gave his first ever interview, to the Washington Post, in which he seemed to argue he was attempting to save newspapers by cutting them. Last updated: 1 April 2023 at 11:00am EST. It had always been called the Contra Costa Times, even through years of mergers with other local papers in the 2000s under its owner, MNG Enterprises (known variably as MediaNews Group or Digital First Media). A boat containing 14 bodies appeared in the Caribbean. The host, in a suit and tie, quizzed them. Smith and his company, Spire Realty Group, are now firmly planted in Dallas. But put me at a party thats not about business, and Ill be the guy in the corner chain-drinking and looking at my watch to see when I can leave., Smith was befriended by John Sughrue, who had come to Dallas from New York and whos now one of the developers behind Museum Tower. Residents of Orange Grove Road have direct access to the beach and the Lake Trail. In fact, he seemed to support anyone but Trump, giving only a few smaller donations to Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan. Journalists of South Bend Tribune unionize, adding momentum to organizing surge, The Finance Curse: How Global Finance is Making Us All Poorer, a convenient way to circumvent contribution limits, Were looking for an administrative secretary, New York Times staffers protest shareholders meeting, Washington Post workers walk out at lunch, Hundreds of Insider workers walk out in protest of proposed layoffs, NewsGuild of New York responds to the shutdown of BuzzFeed News, California guilds submit letter of support for the California Journalism Preservation Act. From $30 million to $86 million: What were the biggest real estate sales of the summer in Palm Beach? It publishes daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, and niche publications and direct mails; and operates local websites and mobile applications. With word getting out about The Spire, Ruff says people in the real estate community are shocked to learn how much land Smith has assembled. He insisted that inaccurate media reports about the company abound, their ownership is a cause for celebration, and Google and Facebook are to blame for the death of local news. Sondes (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9948, 1999) L'oreille voit (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9416, 1994) List of works. Smith runs Spires Children and the Arts Foundation. The Smiths own a lakeside estate across town. Paton has transformed Journal Register to digital first, and that aligns with MediaNews likely direction. By the early nineties, though he had made partner at Bear Stearns, he left to dedicate himself fully to his own company. Caleb will tell you that its his job to come up with ideas; its my job to implement them, says the 35-year-old Ruff, who serves as senior vice president. Ruff filled him in on the history of the Arts District, which was being expanded nearby, and encouraged him to keep adding parking lots and land. This was then divvied up between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, with a note on the Federal Election Commissions site that the RNC cut came from Trump Victory. The total of $5600 each from Barbara and Randall Smith that ended up in Trump For President is the maximum allowed by law for an individual candidate, so the rest went to the RNC. They won, and took the $20,000. Pens and notebooks disappear from newsrooms. (Smith's father, billionaire Randy Smith, is now known as one of the world's leading distressed-asset investors; his Alden Global Capital generated a 187 percent return. ), But its mode of operation remains roughly the same as R.D. But Caleb says the familys growing net worth didnt change things much at home. Caleb Smith didnt think hed last too long in Dallas. Smith is known as a pioneer of vulture capitalism, the purchase and dismantling of distressed firms. Nothing could be further from the truth. On December 3, 2016, the morning after the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland caught fire, killing thirty-six people, the East Bay Timess new executive editor, Neil Chase, instructed his staff to throw their resources behind the story. He insisted that inaccurate media reports about the company abound, their ownership is a cause for celebration, and Google and Facebook are to blame for the death of local news. Three years ago, as his brother, , Smith celebrated his 75th birthday on the tiny Caribbean island of Canouan, which. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been siphoned from the papers while newsrooms struggle with only a quarter of previous staffing levels and offices are sold out from under them. Mr. Smith and his wife contributed $100,000 in 2019 to the Trump Victory Fund in August 2019. By the time he left at the end of 2018, he says, the company was down to 160. is not unique. The week the Smiths made their donations to Trump was also the week the Gannett and GateHouse newspaper chains merged, a bitter pill for Alden because its own takeover of Gannett was thwarted earlier in the year. By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. The deal expires on June 30. Copyright 2023, D Magazine Partners, Inc. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. In the just-recorded sale of the house, real estate attorney Maura Ziska signed the deed as vice present and secretary of the seller, 286 Orange Grove LLC. (Theyve since acquired a controlling stake.). He continued to work for his father through high school, then got a job at a restaurant washing dishes and peeling calamari. There are no older and 9 younger executives at Tribune Publishing. Business records link his wife to Smith Management LLC, which public records haveidentified as Aldens parent company. Palm Beach real estate investor Barbara Stovall Smith and her financier husband, Randall Smith of Alden Global Capital, have used a shell company to sell an investment property on the North End of Palm Beach for a recorded $6.7 million. Randall D. Smith. Last August, he gave over $55,000 to Donald Trumps presidential campaign and over $44,000 to the Republican National Committee; in 2012, he gave $72,800 to Mitt Romneys presidential campaign. Hes also a recluse. In 2019, Forbes put Thiel's total net worth at just $2.3 . Smith has major media interests through Alden Global Capital's 70% ownership stake in MediaNews Group and its 31.6% stake in Tribune Publishing. It had always been called the. If you look at Dallas on paper, youd say only an idiot would build office now, Smith says. The Smiths $100,000 came in the form of two $50,000 contributions to Trump Victory. Alden ultimately thinks that the newspaper industry is guaranteed to die, Doctor believes, and that a lot of money can be made on the way down., They dont care one way or the other about journalism, says Chase. What were the biggest real estate sales of the summer in Palm Beach? (Neither Smith, Alden, the current president of Alden, nor MediaNews Group responded to repeated requests for comment or interview for this story. They sat next to another couple on a set decorated with shiny curtains and long beams dotted with iridescent light bulbs. As of this year, through MediaNews Group, Alden has stakes in about two hundred American newspapers. On that same day, the NewsGuildwhich represents the Chicago Tribune Guild and thirteen Alden-owned newsroomstestified before the US House Committee on Financial Services that, according to its calculations, Alden had been responsible for 23,584 American job losses, through PayLess, Freds, and its newspaper empire. On average, Tribune Publishing executives and independent directors trade stock every 31 days with the average trade being worth of $6,589,782. There are years of Smiths life that are difficult to account for, including recent ones. published at least twenty articles and videos in the first two days after the fire. Smith was accused of getting in the way of more responsible deal-makers seeking a rescue, and ensuring it landed in bankruptcy courtall in a search for a few extra cents per share. Things changed after his junior year at Macalester. They include the. Randall Smith was born in 1942. Thats why Trammell Crow was so successful. It publishes daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, and niche publications and direct mails; and operates local websites and mobile applications. So I agree with Martin Langeveld and other analysts who speculate that MediaNews is the logical launch pad if Alden moves to consolidate its newspaper holdings. I once had to train a 40-year-old how to do it, Smith says. On average, Tribune Publishing executives and independent directors trade stock every 31 days with the average trade being worth of $6,589,782. The AP set off to learn their identities. ProPublica / Justin Elliott, Patricia Callahan, and James Bandler / Jun 24 "Hedge fund manager Randall Smith, whose Alden Global Capital has gutted newspapers around the country, had $252.6 million in his." . July 27, 2011 Even in the close-mouthed world of hedge fund investment, Randall Smith, the principal of Alden Global Capital, gives new meaning to the euphemism "low profile." Smith's. A couple years later, he joined a family acquaintance, Randall Smith, at Alden, making distressed assets his own special focus. Instead, Aldens wealth extraction strategy is expanding throughout the newspaper industry. The majority of the propertieslater changed hands, with at least six sold in thepast two-and-a-half years during the real estate rushsparkedby the coronavirus pandemic, property records show. It appears, , with Wall Street veterans rather than media executives, and until very recently it nearly entirely shunned attention. Nearly two years and several extraordinary measures later, they identified 33 of the 43 people who had set off from West Africa. As Smith climbed the ladder at Bear Stearns, and the couple raised a boy and a girl in Short Hills, New Jersey, he started a new investment firm, R.D. Everyone tries to figure out what kind of real estate company we are. He says hes determined that Spireboth the development and the companywill be a lasting legacy that his daughters will take over some day.
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