recommendation was rejected in favor of an offer that would be considered more generous. It also came with a promise to honor the union contract and retain at least 90% of all non-union staff. But Gallaher’s group heard nothing. No reply or negotiation for better terms was forthcoming from SMI. Meanwhile, Alden was busy behind the scenes—and, in a whirlwind romance, Alden and SMI worked out a deal in a matter of weeks. But SMI never warned the PD staff about the coming sale to Alden. A newsroom surprise An announcement of the sale arrived in the PD newsroom May 1 via an email from Alden, which for many on staff landed in their junk folder. “A lot of us thought it was a joke when we saw the email,” said one newsroom employee. After the email was deemed genuine, nobody was laughing. Later that day, in a press release announcing the Alden Global ownership, Anderson and Falk said “economic challenges” facing the newspaper industry made it “difficult for [SMI’s] small group of local investors to guarantee the paper’s long-term future.” They also said the sale to Alden would best serve the newspaper and the public, a sentiment greeted in the newsroom with disbelief. In the days following the sale, Sharon Ryan, an exec vice president with a subsidiary of Alden, came to talk to the PD staff. Ryan assured the staff Alden was dedicated to keeping local journalism strong and treating employees the right way. A PD employee asked if she meant the PD staff would be treated like employees at the San Jose Mercury News —which came under Alden following its purchase of the Merc’s parent- company MediaNews Group in 2010, and was subsequently gutted. The remark was not well received by Ryan and at least one of the PD staff in that conversation has since been pink slipped. NorthBay Biz tried reaching Ryan with no success. NorthBay biz also reached out multiple times to Anderson, to better understand why the sale was necessary and how the transaction was completed. A Novato native and current Sonoma Valley resident, Anderson wears many hats as a well- known political lobbyist, fundraiser extraordinaire, developer, Jack London buff and, until recently, managing partner of SMI. Messages were left for him at Platinum Advisors, the Sacramento-based lobbying company he owns; Kenwood Investments, his Sonoma real estate company; as well as his cell phone. But like Gallaher and the PD staff, NorthBay biz never heard from Anderson. Private investment firm, or ‘destroyer of newspapers’? So who is Alden Global—the now proud owner of the PD ? The investment firm has about $1 billion under management, not too large in the Wall Street domain. But when it comes to size in the newspaper industry, Alden subsidiary MediaNews Group takes a backseat to almost no one. It holds 77 daily newspapers and more than 150 weekly publications in its portfolio, according to its website. The company is known for taking a private equity approach to the assets it owns. That is, it gravitates toward entities that are distressed, purchasing them at a bargain price and then looking for opportunities to cut costs and profit from the sale of portions of the operations.
Darius Anderson, former managing partner of Sonoma Media Investments. [Image from California Fish & Game, where Anderson is a commissioner]
unsolicited offer of $10 million. [Disclosure: The publisher of NorthBay biz , Lawrence Amaturo, was part of the Gallaher group that made the $12 million offer to buy the SMI assets. And while Amaturo was among a group of sources who spoke both on the record and off for this story, this article was written independently.] An editorial employee at the PD said while the staff had no say in who would ultimately buy the newspaper, it favored a sale to Hearst rather than the Gallaher group because Hearst had extensive media experience. The employee also said Gallaher was considered by some in the newsroom to be “Sonoma County’s Trump,” a moniker that made the newsroom nervous, given the president’s often-contentious relationship with the press. Gallaher has been active in local politics and has pursued a variety of charitable endeavors in the North Bay. He often chafed at the coverage he received from the PD, according to sources with knowledge of his desire to purchase the newspaper. Gallaher sued the Press Democrat in 2016 for libel over a series of stories covering political donations. The lawsuit was eventually tossed out. While Gallaher’s group waited by the phone, with radio silence coming from SMI, it took the unusual step of putting out a press release in March 2025 about its desire to purchase the PD and other media assets. Gallaher was wary of his bid disappearing without any acknowledgement or back and forth with SMI because of the 2024 experience. The group’s statement said, in part, that they wanted to “preserve and enhance local journalism by keeping these publications community-owned and operated.” The group’s $12 million offer was based on a report by a consultant, who first recommended the group propose a lower offer amount, based on a multiple of the newspaper’s revenue. But, according to a member of the local group, the consultant’s
26 NorthBaybiz
September 2025
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