When I looked online at the leveraged buyouts by Alden Digital First Media, I wasn’t sure what to think. It’s clear that many people are not very happy about Alden and its subsidiary’s tactics. What I found on the internet was information saying that Alden & Digital First Media are buying out newspapers that are in financial distress. In order to make a profit, they lay off the reporters, editors, and photographers of that newspaper. With buying the companies also come the newspapers’ buildings, which Alden uses as real estate to make even more money.

I found this quite surprising, as I had no idea something like this was going on in the journalism industry. It makes me kind of sad to hear how big companies are buying out smaller newspapers that are already in financial distress, only to slash the jobs and sell the buildings to make money. Buying newspapers just to use their buildings for real estate use was something that never even occurred to me, but is apparently Alden’s main focus.

I hope this issue does not continue, as I think that cutting jobs and selling buildings just to make money is not helpful to anyone except Alden. Unfortunately, it seems that Alden is not planning to stop any time soon and that is worrisome. One can only hope that the old newsroom and the future of journalism can withstand the big companies and their buyouts.