Could Alden swoop in and destroy Dallas’ newspaper? Plus, Soon-Shiong’s latest scheme for the LA Times.

Less than two weeks ago I wrote that Hearst’s plan to acquire The Dallas Morning News and add it to its expanding group of Texas newspapers was a positive development for the Lone Star State. Hearst is a privately owned chain that has a reputation for producing quality statewide and regional news, although its community-level coverage is lacking.

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Now comes a terrifying development: Katie Robertson reports in The New York Times (gift link) that Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that has inflicted so much damage on journalism, is countering with a higher offer — $88 million as opposed to $75 million. Let’s be clear that Alden can afford to pay more because it will finance the acquisition by slashing the Dallas paper’s newsroom and perhaps selling off its real estate, as it has done in so many other places, from Denver and Chicago to Hartford, Connecticut, and Lowell and Fitchburg in Massachusetts.

According to Robertson, the Morning News would be added to Alden’s MediaNews Group, one of two chains it owns; the other is Tribune Publishing. She quotes from a MediaNews Group letter to the DallasNews Corp. board:

We have been considering a potential transaction with DallasNews for several years because we are consistently impressed with its commitment to high-quality local journalism supported by operational efficiency that maximizes resources available for the newsroom.

Under Hearst ownership, Poynter media-business media analyst Rick Edmonds predicted that some business operations would be consolidated but the newsroom would be left alone. If the ghouls from Alden take charge, though, all bets would be off. Robertson reports that Alden has already bought up 10% of DallasNews’ stock. We can only hope that the board is willing and able to fight off this truly frightening takeover attempt.

Meanwhile, Patrick Soon-Shiong, the medical-device billionaire who helped deliver the Tribune papers to Alden, has yet another scheme for resuscitating the Los Angeles Times, which has failed to thrive under his feckless ownership and which has been floundering since he killed his paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris just before the election, and just days before Jeff Bezos did the same at The Washington Post.

The “red-pilled billionaire,” to use Oliver Darcy’s wonderful description, has decided to take the Times public. He announced the news during an interview with Jon Stewart that Darcy describes as weirdly obsequious, with Stewart and his staff seemingly not having done any research on the MAGA-curious Soon-Shiong. The aforementioned Edmonds writes (fourth item) of Soon-Shiong’s harebrained scheme to engineer a Wall Street bailout:

The truly baffling part, though, is how in the world he imagines going public is a match for the Times’ situation. Typically, initial public offerings allow founders who have put together a business with a still-growing, big base of customers to cash in. Plus, it’s a vehicle to raise capital for major expansion.

But who wants to buy into a particularly troubled franchise in a declining industry?

These are dark times for the news media, with major papers and television networks paying obeisance to Donald Trump. The need for tough, independent journalism is greater than ever. It’s still out there, but you really have to wonder who’s going to be picked off next.