Legislators examine proposed sale of Courant parent Tribune Publishing to Alden Capital

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The impending takeover of the Hartford Courant by a cost-cutting hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, was decried in testimony Thursday before a legislative committee weighing an unusual bill that would give the state a role in the newspaper’s finances, the non-profit Connecticut Mirror reported yesterday.

The paper reported:

The bill would bar the Courant’s ownership from incurring debt or issuing dividends that are “not in the public interest,” provisions aimed at blocking Alden from some of the vehicles used by equity funds to wring cash out of newspapers, rather than invest in them.

It would allow the attorney general or anyone who has subscribed to the paper for at least a year the legal standing to go to court and seek an injunction against Alden for financial moves not in the public interest.

Andrew Julien, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Courant, and Chris VanDeHoef, the executive director of the association that represents all 17 daily newspapers in Connecticut, opposed the bill as a government intrusion at odds with the First Amendment.

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Hartford Courant, Alden Global Capital