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28-461: Prairie Mountain Media is an American publishing company owned by Digital First Media . It owns a series of newspapers most notably The Denver Post . Digital First Media is owned by Alden Global Capital which has sharply cut costs by reducing the number of journalists working on many of its newspapers. In 2006, E. W. Scripps Company and MediaNews Group, Inc. formed a partnership to operate both of

56-480: A proxy fight . After a failed attempt to place 3 nominees on Gannett's board of directors through a proxy vote on May 16, 2019, DFM reduced their stake to 4.2%. In August 2019, GateHouse Media ultimately announced its intent to acquire Gannett instead. On February 5, 2020, Digital First Media purchased the assets of Minnesota-based Red Wing Publishing/Big Fish Works. The sale included the Hutchinson Leader ,

84-512: A former member of the board of trustees for University of Denver . In January 2010, Affiliated Media, parent of MediaNews, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The MediaNews creditors then removed Media News president Joseph Lodovic and its chairman, William Dean Singleton, was reassigned to the position of “executive chairman of the board." The Singleton-Lodovic appointees to the MediaNews board were replaced by new directors representing

112-519: A hub near a cluster of newspapers. For example, the Alameda Newspaper Group in suburban San Francisco in the mid-1990s had a central newsroom in Pleasanton, California, that did all the copy editing, layout and page makeup for five daily papers. Upon acquiring the diverse group of papers, Singleton consolidated several news sections (such as sports and features) to one local office away from

140-1694: A reputation for cutting costs by reducing the number of journalists working on its newspapers as Singleton had done and March 2018, The Washington Post called Alden "one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism." Alden has additionally received critical coverage from its editorial staff of the Denver Post and described Alden Global Capital as "vulture capitalists" after multiple staff layoffs. The company has been criticized for investing its employee pensions in funds managed by its parent company, Alden Global Capital . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NBC News Wall Street Journal Politico MSNBC / CNBC / Telemundo Bloomberg Government Washington Examiner Boston Globe / Washington Blade Fox News CBS News Radio AP Radio / PBS VOA Time Yahoo News Daily Caller / EWTN CBS News Bloomberg News McClatchy NY Post / TheGrio Washington Times Salem Radio / CBN Cheddar News / Hearst TV AP NPR Foreign pool The Hill Regionals Newsmax Gray TV / Spectrum News ABC News Washington Post Agence France-Presse Fox Business / Fox News Radio CSM / Roll Call Al Jazeera Nexstar / Scripps News Reuters NY Times LA Times Univision / AURN RealClearPolitics Daily Beast / Dallas Morning News BBC / Newsweek CNN USA Today ABC News Radio Daily Mail National Journal HuffPost Financial Times / The Guardian William Dean Singleton Singleton

168-577: A result, 40 employees will be let go. The company owns the following newspapers in Colorado: This Colorado -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Digital First Media MNG Enterprises, Inc. , doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group , is a Denver , Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital . As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 assorted other publications. MediaNews Group

196-613: The Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise to Digital First Media. The papers were integrated into Digital First Media's Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which was renamed the Southern California News Group on the same day. In November 2018, Digital First Media announced plans to lay off 107 staff from its Colorado Springs, Colorado financial services operations, as it outsources

224-762: The Litchfield Independent Review , the International Falls Journal , the Lakeshore Weekly News , the Chanhassen Villager , Chaska Herald , Eden Prairie News , Jordan Independent , Shakopee Valley News , Prior Lake American and the Savage Pacer . In April 2020, two of Minneapolis' west metro newspapers— The Eden Prairie News and Lakeshore Weekly News bought earlier in 2020 by Digital First Media—announced their closure at

252-980: The Alameda Newspaper Group, as well as other papers, while Stephens contributed papers such as the Vallejo Times Herald and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario. A year after forming the partnership, the duo allowed Gannett to enter, with its contributions including the San Bernardino Sun and the Marin Independent Journal . The partnership is known as the " California Newspapers Partnership ". MediaNews has entered into similar partnerships in Texas and Pennsylvania with Gannett and in Colorado with The E.W. Scripps Company . In

280-853: The board of the Newspaper Association of America from 1993 until 2004 and is the former board chairman. He is on several boards in Colorado , including The Helen G. Bonfils Foundation , The Denver Center for the Performing Arts , the Winter Park Recreational Association Board, and the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center, the National Sports Center for the Disabled . In addition, he is

308-713: The companies' newspapers based in Eastern Colorado. Each company would control a 50% stake in newly created Colorado Publishing Co. In 2009, MediaNews Group gained full ownership of the company, which at some point was renamed to Prairie Mountain Media. The company acquired Lehman Communications in 2011 and the Greeley Tribune from Swift Communications in 2020. In June 2024, the company announced it will shutter its printing plant in Berthoud and move production of its papers to The Denver Post 's production facility. As

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336-403: The company acquired The Scranton Times-Tribune and three other daily newspapers from Times-Shamrock Communications . The sale included weekly and periodic newspapers and commercial printing operations—Absolute Distribution Inc. and Times-Shamrock Creative Services. In April 2024, Southwest News Media, owned by Digital First Media, announced its weekly newspapers would cease before the end of

364-519: The company was ranked third-largest among the newspaper groups in the country. Alden Global Capital has been accused of "strip mining" its newspaper holdings. In October 2017, the company's CEO, Steve Rossi, stepped down from his position. In February 2018, Digital First Media put in a $ 11.9 million winning bid to purchase the Boston Herald. In March 2016, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Freedom Communications and its two major newspapers,

392-538: The copy editing, layout and page makeup for five daily papers. Upon acquiring the diverse group of papers, Singleton consolidated several news sections (such as sports and features) to one local office away in order to streamline work. He was also a pioneer, at developing pooled-asset partnerships. Among the first were papers in California, which included papers from Gannett Co. Inc. , Stephens Media Group and MediaNews. His company contributed Los Angeles Daily News and

420-539: The end of April 2020 due to a decline in advertising revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 25, 2021, Alden Global Capital acquired Tribune Publishing . With its combined holdings, Alden became the second-largest owner of newspapers in the United States in terms of subscribers, behind only Gannett . On July 10, 2023, Digital First Media acquired The San Diego Union-Tribune for an undisclosed sum. That August,

448-544: The largest newspaper companies in the United States. It operated 56 daily newspapers in 12 states, with combined daily and Sunday circulation of about 2.4 million and 2.7 million, respectively. The company owned KTVA , a CBS affiliate in Anchorage , Alaska , from March 2000 to October 2012, and radio stations in Texas . Singleton was a pioneer in "clustering": cutting jobs at individual newspapers and consolidating functions at

476-693: The late 1990s, Singleton began focusing less on consolidating news rooms and put more focus on the quality of news rooms. He lured Gregory Moore, the former assistant managing editor of the Boston Globe , to the Denver Post and together the two worked to improve the paper's journalism. Singleton's empire began rapid growth in the early part of the 21st century, when he acquired in rapid succession daily newspapers in Salt Lake City , Detroit , St. Paul, Minnesota , and San Jose, California . Singleton served on

504-491: The latest round of cuts, the daily Oakland Tribune was to become a weekly. Singleton was a pioneer in "clustering"—developing groups of newspapers that centralized a variety of functions, including production, ad sales, business operations and, in some cases, editorial. An example of this was the Alameda Newspaper Group in suburban San Francisco , where in the mid-1990s a central newsroom in Pleasanton, California , did all

532-518: The loan was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . It came out of bankruptcy in March 2010 under the majority ownership of its lenders. The MediaNews creditors then removed Media News president Jody Lodovic and its chairman, William Dean Singleton , was reassigned to the position of "executive chairman of the board." The Singleton-Lodovic appointees to the MediaNews board were replaced by new directors representing

560-471: The metropolitan area, having a few reporters do the job of many people. Singleton soon earned the nickname "Lean Dean" for his slashing of jobs through clustering. His tight-fisted methods were later adopted as the preferred model by Alden Global Capital and other hedge funds that took over near-bankrupt newspaper companies. In August 2006, Singleton took out around $ 350 million in loans to purchase four newspapers from McClatchy Company . Among those providing

588-486: The month, including: Chaska Herald , Chanhassen Villager , Jordan Independent , the Shakopee Valley News , Prior Lake American and Savage Pacer. Crow River Media, another subsidiary, announced The Hutchinson Leader and Litchfield Independent Review will also close along with its affiliate printing plant. Listed alphabetically by name, daily newspapers owned by MediaNews include the following: Some of

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616-406: The newspapers are focused on making a profit to the detriment of good journalism. William Dean Singleton was quick to point out MediaNews' commitment to print journalism but resisted efforts to develop online web sites for his newspapers, believing print would remain the format favored by readers. The Berkshire Eagle editor David E. Scribner, two years after MediaNews bought his newspaper, said

644-402: The staff realized Singleton had miscalculated the impact of the internet and attributed the downward spiral of his media properties to his short-sightedness. In recent years similar criticism has been aimed at the new organizational structure under Digital First Media. The Denver Post editorial staff and others have criticized the owners of hedge fund group, Alden Global Capital . Alden has

672-441: The stockholders group led by Alden Global Capital , a hedge fund firm which has acquired a large, though not controlling, stake. Several interim executive positions were also filled by people related to Alden or its parent, Smith Management LLC. MediaNews became managed by Journal Register 's Digital First Media. As of 2012, the combined newspapers and online media outlets managed by the company had 66.6 million readers. In 2017,

700-500: The weeklies owned by the company: Other MediaNews properties include: MediaNews Group is known as a cost-cutter in the newspaper publishing industry. The company has a reputation for buying smaller daily newspapers in a single area (examples include Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area) and consolidating their operations, including sharing staff writers and printing facilities. Some former employees and readers say that

728-433: The work to Genpact starting December 28. In January 2019, Digital First Media acquired 7.5% of Gannett 's public stock, and made an unsolicited bid to acquire Gannett for $ 1.36 billion. On February 4, 2019, Gannett's board "unanimously rejected" the offer, saying "that MNG does not have a realistic plan to acquire Gannett". On February 11, 2019, Gannett issued a press release accusing Digital First Media of engaging in

756-722: Was born in Graham, Texas . He began his newspaper career at the age of 15 as a part-time reporter in Graham and bought his first newspaper at age 21. Singleton has built his newspaper company through the acquisition of newspapers. He closed several of those newspapers, such as the Fort Worth Press and the Houston Post . He also bought the Denver Post and the Oakland Tribune , where he laid off staff, he said, to increase efficiency. In

784-932: Was founded by Richard Scudder and William Dean Singleton . Both had experience in the American newspaper industry . Scudder ran the Newark Evening News , a newspaper founded by his grandfather. Singleton had begun his career as a reporter when he was 15, for a small-town Texas newspaper and subsequently became the president of Albritton Communications , a newspaper conglomerate in Texas. Based in Denver, Colorado, Scudder and Singleton purchased their first newspaper in 1983. They incorporated MediaNews Group in 1985, with Singleton as CEO and Scudder as chairman. The company began to purchase small local newspapers that were financially troubled. The company made its first major acquisition in 1987: The Denver Post . Ultimately, it became one of

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