Baltimore Sun sold to chairman of Sinclair TV Stations
The Baltimore Sun, Maryland's largest newspaper, has been sold to David D. Smith, executive chairman of the national Sinclair network of television stations and other media outlets.
Mr. Smith, who grew up in Baltimore, bought Baltimore Sun Media, which includes The Sun, in a private deal from Alden Global Capital, an investment firm that has become the nation's second-largest newspaper operator. Sun Media also includes The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, and several other publications in the Baltimore area.
It was unclear how much Mr. Smith paid for Baltimore Sun Media.
Triffon G. Alatzas, the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sun, said in an email to the newsroom on Monday that Mr. Smith had purchased The Sun “in support of his hometown newspaper.” Mr Alatzas said Mr Smith would meet with The Sun staff on Tuesday.
In a interview with the newspaperMr Smith said: 'We have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest,' adding: 'I believe the newspaper can be hugely profitable and successful and, over time, serve a greater public interest.'
Like many city newspapers, The Sun has seen it circulation and advertising revenues are eroding as readers have gone online to get their news. Alden, which acquired The Sun in 2021 when it purchased the Chicago-based newspaper Tribune Publishing chain, has implemented aggressive cost savings.
The Sun, which dates back to 1837, also faces competition from The Baltimore flag, a nonprofit subscription website that began publishing in 2022 after hiring some of The Sun's top reporters. The Banner was founded by Stewart Bainum Jr., a hotel magnate and former politician who tried unsuccessfully Buy The Sun.
The Sun will now have a local owner for the first time in almost four decades. It was owned by Times Mirror, a Los Angeles-based media company that included The Los Angeles Times, before being sold to the Tribune Company.
Baltimore Sun Media employs more than 150 employees across its publications, with more than 230,000 paid subscribers for its print and digital editions.
The Sun will differentiate itself from Sinclair, which is based in Maryland and owns about 200 television stations, including the Fox affiliate in Baltimore. In 2018, Sinclair was criticized when anchors at the stations were assigned to read an editorial about media bias. Mr Smith strongly disagreed with the criticism of the scripts.
Mr. Smith is the latest wealthy investor to try to revive a news organization in recent years. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong bought The Los Angeles Times in 2018and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post in 2013.
Baltimore Sun Media has won 16 Pulitzer Prizes. The Capital Gazette won a special Pulitzer citation for reporting on a shooting that killed five employees at its offices in June 2018.