Baltimore Sun Media has been sold to a Maryland business leader

The Baltimore Sun, Maryland's largest newspaper, has been acquired in a private deal by David D. Smith, CEO of Sinclair, which owns Hunt Valley Television.

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 has been in the hands of a local owner.

Smith decided to personally purchase the newspaper, along with the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, the Carroll County Times, the Towson Times and several other Baltimore area newspapers and weekly magazines, because of the publications' focus on local news in the Baltimore area.

“I work in the news business because I believe… that we have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest,” Smith said in an interview. “I believe the newspaper can be hugely profitable and successful and serve a greater public interest over time.

“We have one job, which is to tell the truth, present the facts, period. This is our mission.”

Heath Freeman, Alden's president, did not respond to a request for comment Monday, but the deal was confirmed in a statement from Alden 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 United States.

“We are always open to discussions about local ownership and are pleased that our prominent newspaper operating and technology platform will continue to provide services to The Baltimore Sun,” Jay Gilmore, MediaNews Group's chief operating officer, said in an email.

While the newspaper's ownership has changed, nothing will change for its customers. Local news will be gathered, advertisements can be placed and papers will be delivered. Over time, customers can expect more content focused on their communities, Smith said.

Smith did 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 programs across the United States and a recent failed bid for ownership of a regional sports network. Sinclair's empire began with television station WBFF Fox 45 in Baltimore.

With his purchase of The Sun, Smith said he aimed to help turn around the struggling newspaper industry, a decline he blamed on the industry's inability to adapt to a changing marketplace and the Internet, which has upended the consumption and delivery of news and advertising.

He said he believes he can increase subscriptions and advertising for The Sun and its other publications by focusing more on local and community news and investigations, enhancing the use of video and social media, and integrating technology in ways other print media companies have not been able to achieve. To do so.

Smith criticized the “mainstream media” in general for focusing on issues that he said affect only a small number of people rather than those that affect greater numbers, adding that he finds “strange that the mainstream media in this city so often chooses not to Covering things that affect everyone.” “, especially regarding problems and corruption in the government.

He said his first step would be to meet with staff and management of The Sun and its affiliates on Tuesday to begin understanding the publication's mission and operations and begin discussions about the future vision.

“We understand the importance of strong public service journalism and holding region politicians and others in power accountable,” Trev Alatzas, The Sun’s publisher and editor-in-chief, said Monday. “This has been part of Baltimore Sun Media's DNA for generations. We look forward to working together to make our organization stronger.”

Smith said he intends to invest in the business but will need to spend time learning about the processes and resources required.

For now, he said he plans to keep the service agreements Alden has with Tribune Publishing for newspaper design, human resources, accounting and other backroom functions. At some point, he said he would stop these agreements and the newspaper group would operate as an independent company.

“Although this news comes as a surprise, we are eager to learn more in the coming days,” said Christine Condon, an environmental reporter for The Sun and president of The Baltimore Sun Guild, which represents the newspaper's reporters, photographers and advertising staff. . “The Sun has a proud history of journalism that holds the powerful accountable, and we expect any new owner to help us maintain these values.”

Smith said he became interested in buying the media group about two years ago, but the deal never happened.

“The passage of time made me focus more on it, and it seemed like the right time, so I made the deal,” said Smith, who said he started reading The Sun regularly only a few months ago.

Smith said he will be joined in the newspaper venture by one partner, with an undisclosed ownership stake: 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 AS Abell, which had ties to the Abell family that founded The Sun, sold the paper to the Times Mirror, a Los Angeles-based media company that included The Sun. Los Angeles Times, Newsday and other publications. The Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune, bought the Times-Mirror in 2000. After filing for bankruptcy in 2008 and going through a series of leadership changes since then, Alden bought Tribune Publishing in 2021 and went 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.

Although its Sun deal is independent of Sinclair, Smith, that company's CEO and former CEO, said he envisions opportunities for partnerships between The Sun and Sinclair, such as syndication of 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 partly 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 the top television stations in Baltimore.

Smith praised the news reporting of Fox 45 and other Sinclair stations as balanced and non-political.

“Even though we're not perfect, we seem to be doing a much better job than a lot of people are doing,” he said.

The company has been criticized for requiring affiliates across the country to broadcast conservative programming and editorial content, although many conservatives argue that most newspapers are too liberal.

While Smith has been an active political supporter of Republicans, he said he is focused on good governance. He financially supports a Baltimore City organization that describes itself as grassroots and pushes for more transparent and accountable city government. In 2022, People for Elected Accountability and Civic Engagement successfully passed a ballot measure requiring term limits for the city mayor, comptroller and city council. She is also pushing for another ballot measure that would allow voters to petition for a recall vote on those officials.

A Sinclair spokesman said Monday that Smith made the acquisition using his personal assets and that Sinclair had nothing to do with the deal. Mr. Smith will continue as Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board.

Smith's announcement comes after decades of wealthy individuals and organizations in the Baltimore area trying unsuccessfully to buy the state's largest publisher of newspapers, websites and magazines but were never successful. Although the matter was discussed for years, no local buyer was ever able to secure a deal for the news organization, which AS Abell started in 1837 as a cheap publication for the masses.

More recently, in 2021, Stuart Bynum Jr., a former state senator and chairman of the Choice Hotel, tried to buy The Sun or secure financing for parent Tribune Publishing, owner of the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and other major newspapers. Unable to reach an agreement, Bynum instead started the non-profit Baltimore Banner with his own millions.

Smith, who grew up in Baltimore and graduated from Baltimore City College High School, joins a small group of other wealthy individuals who in recent years have bought news organizations or other publications in their hometown, saying they hope to revive the flagging business, which has suffered from declining revenues. Partly because of big powers like Google, Facebook and others who control the lion's share of digital advertising. For decades, readers have turned to digital news sources thanks to mobile media platforms and social media.

Billionaire businessman Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018 in hopes of freeing the company from cost-cutting undertaken by the Tribune at the time. Amazon.com founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013 and used his experience in retail technology to make investments. While the two men have increased staffing and invested in journalism since those purchases, news organizations have continued to suffer from declining revenues and have announced cutbacks over the past year.

The Sun is one of the country's most historic surnames. Baltimore Sun Media has won 16 Pulitzer Prizes over the years, most recently in 2020 for its investigation into former Baltimore Mayor Katherine Pugh and the University of Maryland Medical System. Annapolis was the capital He received a special citation from Pulitzer A year ago for her coverage of the June 2018 shooting attack at her offices in Annapolis that left five of her colleagues dead. Baltimore Sun Media journalism has been recognized with six Pulitzer nominations since 2015.

This article has been updated to correct Heath Freeman's address and the name of the MediaNews group. The sun regrets mistakes.