The Rise of the Hedge Fund Era Threats to Journalism and the News Industry

This book sheds light on the relationship between media ownership and management, particularly in the context of hedge fund ownership in the U.S. news media industry. The book is grounded in two empirical studies: one examining financial issues, and the other examining opinion issues. Study one is a longitudinal study spanning from 2007 to 2022, analyzing 55 annual reports from four newspaper companies over 16 years, including Gannett, Lee Enterprises, Tribune Publishing, and McClatchy. Study Two includes nationally conducted in-depth interviews, targeting individuals in management positions at newspapers acquired by hedge funds, namely Tribune Publishing (acquired by Alden in 2021) and McClatchy (acquired by Chatham in 2019).

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Three eras of U.S. newspaper ownership patterns.- Chapter 3: Journalism professionalism’s new struggles.- Chapter 4: Threats to News Management in the Era of Hedge Fund Ownership.- Chapter 5: Methods.- Chapter 6: Study One: Results and Discussion.- Chapter 7: Study Two: Results and Discussion.- Chapter 8: Conclusion.

Qian Yu is the Assistant Professor of Mass Communication in the department of Communication at Eastern New Mexico University. She was awarded her PhD degree from the University of Oklahoma. After more than ten years of significant professional experience in a wide range of media industry, she is now a scholar exploring turbulent economic change in relation to journalism professionalism and media management.