EXCLUSIVE: In a 2021 article, The Atlantic explored the decline of local journalism in this country, citing among many examples the once-proud Chicago Tribune. The paper’s newsroom, formerly housed in the grandly Gothic Tribune Tower, the article noted, had relocated to a space “the size of a Chipotle.”
The piece, written by McKay Coppins, was titled “A Secretive Hedge Fund Is Gutting Newsrooms.” Subtitle: “Inside Alden Global Capital.”
Three years later, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rick Goldsmith picks up that torch with his documentary Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink, a film that shines an even more glaring light on Alden Global Capital, owner of Tribune Publishing, the Southern California News Group, MediaNews Group, and other newspaper holdings. (In 2019, Alden tried but failed to take over Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher by circulation).
STRIPPED FOR PARTS 