The new owner of the Baltimore Sun has put the newsroom on edge

A few years ago, in a desperate effort to avoid being taken over by a hedge fund, employees of The Baltimore Sun publicly begged a local entrepreneur to buy their publication.

That request was recently granted: a Maryland businessman, David D. Smith, purchased the legendary newspaper and returned the 186-year-old paper to local hands for the first time in nearly 40 years.

But Mr Smith may not be quite what The Sun's journalists were hoping for. According to interviews with current and former employees of the paper, Mr. Smith's purchase has already raised alarms among many inside and outside the newsroom, who fear he will impose his political interests on the organization in a final coda for a once-proud newspaper that is struggling with a long-term decline.

Mr. Smith is executive chairman of the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the nation's largest operators of local television stations with nearly 200 stations, including Fox45 in Baltimore. Sinclair has been a reliable ally for former President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Smith reportedly told Mr. Trump said in 2016: “We are here to deliver your message.” In 2018, the company required its stations to do so movie promos echoing some of Mr. Trump's attacks on the news media.

Mr. Smith has frequently supported conservative causes. According to tax records, his family foundation has donated more than $500,000 in recent years to Project Veritas, a right-wing group that has attempted to covertly capture political opponents and journalists.

The Sun's new owner did little to address internal concerns during a three-hour meeting with staff members on Tuesday. According to two people in the meeting, Mr. Smith told the newsroom that he had read the paper only a few times in recent months and not at all in the past four decades. He urged them to increase profits and said he wanted the publication to emulate the local Sinclair station, Fox45. He also said at the meeting that he wanted the newspaper to report on corruption. (The Sun won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for do exactly that.)

“I think it will be a disaster,” John E. McIntyre, an editor at The Sun for 34 years, said of Mr. Smith's ownership. Mr. McIntyre took a buyout in 2021 and now does occasional freelance work for the new crosstown rival, The Baltimore Banner.

“What I expect is that he will make good on what he said, to make The Baltimore Sun the same as his TV station Fox45: a megaphone for right-wing disinformation and contempt for the city of Baltimore,” Mr. McIntyre said. added.

The Sun, Maryland's largest newspaper, has suffered declining advertising revenue and print circulation in recent years, with virtually all newspapers facing the same headwinds. The newspaper once had about 500 journalists and numerous foreign bureaus. Now The Sun and its sister newspapers employ around 150 people, including those on the business side.

In 2021, Alden Global Capital, an investment firm that has a playbook of buying local newspapers before costs come down, bought The Sun. The newspaper's employees and others in the community tried to fend off Alden's purchase. In February 2021, Stewart Bainum Jr., a Maryland hotel magnate and lifelong Democrat, reached a deal to buy The Sun and two of its sister publications for $65 million, with a plan to run them through a nonprofit.

But that deal fell through and Mr. Bainum eventually founded local rival news organization The Baltimore Banner, which hired some of The Sun's top reporters and has nearly doubled its newsroom in less than two years to 70, nearly the same size as The Sun. The flag reported earlier this week about the staff meeting with Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith bought The Sun and several other newspapers from Alden on Jan. 12 with a partner, Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator. The new owners said they had used personal funds independently of Sinclair. The price of the deal was not disclosed, but Mr. Smith told the newsroom at the meeting that the deal was in “nine figures,” or at least $100 million.

Guy Gilmore, Chief Operating Officer of Alden's MediaNews Group, said in a statement: “We are always open to discussions about local ownership and are pleased that our premier newspaper operations and technology platform will continue to provide services to The Baltimore Sun.”

Mr. Smith, through a representative, declined to comment for this article. He told The Sun an interview Monday that he bought the paper because “we have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest” and that he thought the paper could be “tremendously profitable.”

Mr. Williams, his business partner, said in a telephone interview Friday that employees had misinterpreted Mr. Smith's comments during the staff meeting.

“What matters is what we do – that's what we'll be judged on – not what someone says at the first meeting, but what we do every day in that newsroom,” Mr Williams said.

He added: “Why would we spend a fortune buying this just to destroy it? That makes no sense.”

Mr. Williams owns a Sinclair-affiliated media company and has had a long career as a radio and television show host and columnist. In 2005, Mr. Williams admitted that he had been paid $240,000 by the George W. Bush administration to promote the administration's No Child Left Behind law in his columns and elsewhere.

Mr Williams said personal politics would have “absolutely no” impact on The Sun's journalism, and that he wanted rigorous and factual reporting. “More than anything, we need balance in reporting,” he said.

Trif Alatzas, The Sun's publisher and editor-in-chief, would continue in this role, Mr Williams said.

The Baltimore Sun Guild, which represents journalists at the newspaper, said in a statement rack after the staff meeting: “The editorial direction he described – focused on clicks rather than journalistic value – concerned many of our members, as did his attitude toward vulnerable communities in the city we love.”

Journalists at The Sun have not heard from or seen Mr Smith since the meeting, said two employees who spoke on condition of anonymity. Nothing has immediately changed in their daily work, the people said.

The Sun has continued to cover its new owner. An article published reported on Wednesday that Mr. Smith has contributed $100,000 to a PAC supporting Sheila Dixon, a Democrat and former mayor of Baltimore who is challenging the city's current mayor. Thursday newspaper published an article about Mr. Smith's involvement in financing a ballot petition asking for the size of the Baltimore City Council in half.

Mr. Bainum said in an interview Friday that The Baltimore Banner had seen a big increase in new subscriptions since announcing the sale of The Sun.

“We launched the Banner 19 months ago to bring more high-quality journalism to Baltimore and Maryland,” he said. “If these sales of The Sun reach even greater heights, it will certainly be a boost for the region. The more local news, the better.”

External critics were pessimistic about The Sun's new ownership. Guardian media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote: “You often hear the desire for more local ownership, because national vulture capital chains have done so much damage. But as the situation in Baltimore shows, local ownership can be just as bad.”

David Simon, creator of the TV show “The Wire” and former Sun reporter, said in a wire on the social media platform

Josh Tyrangiel, a media executive and filmmaker who sits on the board of The Baltimore Banner, said in an interview about Mr. Smith: “He's the Grim Reaper. And since he clearly knows nothing about journalism, he will be a carefree Grim Reaper.”

“The sun faces a miserable, undignified death,” he added.