But Alden has drained the talent pool. According to a former Press Democrat employee, 52 staffers have been let go in the four months since Alden took over (that source is among those former staffers looking for a new gig). To be clear, this is the way Alden does business. One Press Democrat employee said that a trio of cuts has been made to the editorial staff, with more job loss anticipated. One staffer said the newsroom atmosphere is one of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s worth looking at the business of journalism as a whole to better place the PD . Since 2005, 3,300 newspapers have closed, according to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. There are roughly 6,000 newspapers remaining in the U.S., with the strong majority of those publications being weeklies. More than half the counties in the U.S. no longer have a newspaper. Last year, 258 newspapers were sold in 75 transactions, so the sale of the Press Democrat and its sister publications is not unusual in the industry. And a purchase by a private equity firm or institutional investor isn’t out of the ordinary either. Fortress Investment Group has purchased newspapers over the years. Apollo Global Management has bankrolled some newspaper deals, making a $1.8 billion loan to Fortress at a whopping 11.5% interest rate. The mutual fund BlackRock owns interests in newspapers as well. Though the North Bay is in no danger of becoming a news desert, there’s a chance Alden may feel consolidation makes sense. It now owns a trio of newspapers in Sonoma County—the daily PD and the Petaluma and Sonoma weeklies—as well as the Marin Independent Journal in San Rafael. Alden has owned the Marin IJ since 2010. Speaking with a
Bill Gallaher, founder of Poppy Bank, pulled together the group which made a $12 million bid for the Press Democrat .
Dessert is Better with Bundts
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28 NorthBaybiz
September 2025
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