Good morning, and welcome to the
Essential California newsletter. It’s
Tuesday, June 4, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.
Prominent families once were synonymous with the newspapers they owned — the Chandlers, Hearsts, Copleys, Ridders and De Youngs. But most of them long ago gave way to corporate chains. Then the downturn in the print business hit, leaving a dwindling number of papers under family ownership.
On Sunday night, that list got smaller. The Harrell-Fritts family
announced it would be selling the
Bakersfield Californian after 122 years.
The Central Valley paper had been
one of the state’s last major family-owned newspapers in an increasingly difficult economy for the local news business. The paper was sold to Sound News Media, a new company led by a “veteran newspaper executive” named
Steven Malkowich.
This isn’t the first time Malkowich has served as the face of the sale for a longtime family-owned California local paper being purchased by a newly formed entity. The Canadian newspaperman was listed in press releases for the sales of
the Lodi News-Sentinel and
the Antelope Valley Press in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
And Malkowich’s reach extends beyond California. The
Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers group, which owns a number of community newspapers serving Rhode Island and Connecticut, is also “led by Canadian newspaper executive Steven Malkowich,” according to
a news release on one of those sales. Last year, when two family-owned local papers in Massachusetts were sold, the purchaser was another “new entity led by Canadian newspaper executive Steven Malkowich.”
Despite his growing newspaper portfolio, little has been written about Malkowich. So, I kept digging around.
Here’s what I know, and some of what I don’t:
The Vancouver-based Alberta Newspaper Group, where Malkowich is employed as an executive vice president, is run by David Radler, the man who helped fallen media baron Conrad Black build a global newspaper empire. Radler was Black’s longtime right-hand man, and later — in exchange for a plea bargain in their fraud case — served
as the star witness against Black at trial. Radler, who was formerly the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, served less than a year of his 29-month sentence for fraud. Black was
recently pardoned by President Trump.
In 2007,
Canada’s Financial Post wrote that, amid the criminal proceedings, Radler was “quietly amassing a burgeoning community newspaper empire with his eldest daughter” Melanie Walsh (née Radler). The article details the early holdings of the Rhode Island newspaper group, which have since grown.
Before we get any further, I want to be clear about what we
don’t know. Numerous Canadian newspaper stories (as well as the woman who answered the phone at their Vancouver office) have said that Radler runs the Alberta Newspaper Group, where Malkowich is executive vice president, but it’s unclear what direct involvement — if any — Radler has in purchasing this growing portfolio of local newspapers around the country.
Radler’s daughter Melanie Walsh is listed as the chief executive in
a filing for the newly formed company that purchased the Bakersfield Californian. She is also listed as the CEO on documents for the entities that purchased the
Antelope Valley Press and the
Lodi News-Sentinel.
The Lodi News-Sentinel had been in former publisher Marty Weybret’s family since 1959 when Weybret made the difficult decision to sell the paper in 2015. Weybret told me that he dealt directly with Malkowich, but he never knew who his investors were. “He very conspicuously did not want to show me how his organization worked,” Weybret said.
Weybret said Malkowich “kept referring to Radler” but never confirmed what role he played in the company, if he even had a formal role. Sometimes Malkowich quoted Radler as having a ‘philosophy of newspapers.’”
There are actually even more small papers that this group has purchased in California. Between 2013 and 2015, Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers was announced as the new owner for both the
Porterville Record in the San Joaquin Valley and the
Imperial Valley Press in the Imperial Valley. Melanie Walsh was listed as CEO on filing documents for the newly formed companies that purchased both papers. She was also listed as CEO on filing documents for
an entity called Vista California News Media, which has purchased several local California papers, including Northern California’s
Marysville Appeal-Democrat and the
Tri-County Newspapers in Glenn, Tehama and Colusa counties.
Malkowich did not return multiple requests for comment.
Local news is a notoriously rough business. I can’t help but root for anyone brave or stupid enough to keep investing in it. But, as a journalist, I’m also acutely aware of how much influence an owner can have over a paper, and how much communities deserve to know the full picture, including who actually owns their local paper.
And now,
here’s what’s happening across California:
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