Alden Global's bull riders and other investments besides the U-T

Heath Freeman’s bull riders

Alden Global Capital, the vulture investing outfit that in July took control of the San Diego Union-Tribune from Los Angeles biotech mogul and LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, is the target of a new documentary called Stripped for Parts: American Journalism On the Brink. A week ago, the 26th United Nations Association Film Festival in Palo Alto gave the film its Grand Jury Best Documentary award. “The business model of newspapers — still the largest source of news by far, even in this digital age — is faltering, due to many things, including the loss of advertising to Facebook and Google, the changing way that people seek out news, and other challenges presented by the digital age. But, unknown to many, capitalist greed is also to blame. This is the heart of our story,” says the documentary’s website.

“When Alden Global Capital and its founders, Randall Smith and Heath Freeman, started gobbling up newspapers in 2011, their profiteering model and intentions were largely unknown, even to the journalists who worked at their newspapers. Now, largely due to the reporting and events covered in our documentary, Alden is widely perceived, and labeled, as ‘the destroyer of newspapers.’ Exposure by journalists, activism by their union The NewsGuild, and growing public opposition have foiled Alden Global’s attempts at times. But some takeover attempts succeed, as happened last year with The Tribune Company and its flagship The Chicago Tribune. Who will win these battles: Wall Street ‘vulture capitalists’ who profit from newspapers’ destruction, or those concerned with the health of their communities and the people’s right to know?”

Randall Smith: bullish on bulls.

Amid all the fuss, Alden honcho Freeman has diversified his investment portfolio, snapping up the Oklahoma Freedom, a Professional Bull Riders team, according to PBR.com. The bull riding league is owned by a sports conglomerate known as Endeavor. “The opportunity to help continue building this amazing league that has such significant cultural meaning is very exciting, and I look forward to supporting the efforts of PBR, Endeavor, and the riders whose talents make this such a popular new league with so much potential,” the usually taciturn Freeman said in a statement cited by PBR.com. Another Freeman venture, EHP Hospitality Group, “manages eateries that include Sí Sí Restaurant, and Sunset Harbor, and the Italian-style Buongiorno Bakery — all situated on nine waterfront acres at EHP Resort & Marina East Hampton, the Latin American-inspired restaurant Crash Cantina in Hampton Bays,” per Behind the Hedges Magazine.

By coincidence or not, the Los Angeles Daily News, one of the papers owned by Freeman’s Alden Global Capital, castigated bull riding critics in a February 16, 2022, opinion piece. “The fact is, the extraordinary bucking bulls in PBR get great care throughout a long and pampered life as valuable, world-class animal athletes in a sport enjoyed in hundreds of millions of homes across the globe,” wrote Sean Gleason. CEO and Commissioner of Professional Bull Riders. “Counter to other disinformation circulating, rowels on the riders’ spurs are dull and do not harm the animal, whose skin is seven times thicker than a human’s,” added Gleason. “And the claim that these animals are frequently dying? Bull injuries or fatalities are rare relative to the number of times they perform.”

Landing pads

Some prominent ex-U-T reporters, along with a top business staffer, who left the paper during Alden Global Capital’s mass buyout earlier this year have landed elsewhere. They include Dana Littlefield, once a heralded U-T public safety editor who’s ended up at LAList and its parent, LA-area public radio station KPCC, as a senior editor, per her X account; and ex-U-T tech writer Mike Freeman, who has just become a communications specialist for Global Strategy/International Affairs at San Diego State University, according to his LinkedIn profile. Longtime U-T Vice President for Advertising Paul Ingegneri, also out after the Alden takeover, has taken a job as general manager of the Daily Journal, a Los Angeles and San Francisco newspaper for lawyers, per LinkedIn. Disclosure records show the Daily Journal Corporation is partly owned by Charles Munger, a longtime business associate of legendary billionaire Warren Buffett.

Jack McGrory has been given much. Now, he’s doing the giving.

McGrory’s millions

Ex-San Diego city manager Jack McGrory — who made millions working for Padres owner John Moores and Sol Price after he left city hall, where he aided their projects, then later was named by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown as a trustee of the California University System and helped mastermind SDSU’s takeover of the former Qualcomm Stadium site — gave $5440 on October 10 to the Toni Atkins for Lt. Governor 2026 committee. 

McGrory is currently married to Una Davis, widow of Las Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who died at 98 in 2015, when he and Davis were in the process of breaking up their short-lived marriage. After Kerkorian’s death, Davis claimed a third of his $1.8 billion fortune, but ultimately settled for just $12.5 million, plus $10 million for a “donor advised fund, established in Davis’ name, which will be administered by the National Philanthropic Trust,” reported Variety.com in December 2018. “Last year, the estate agreed to pay $7.27 million to Vanessa Sandin, a former companion of Kerkorian’s who had alleged that he promised to bequeath her $20 million.” Added the Variety account: “Davis’ attorney, John Deily, said his client was pleased with the outcome. ‘The settlement wasn’t about money,’ he said. ‘It was about her being able to be involved in the charitable purposes.’”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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