Editor’s Note: The following is an editorial written by Marijke Rowland, editor of The Modesto Focus, sister publication of The Merced FOCUS.
When I worked for The McClatchy Company, owner of The Merced Sun-Star and The Modesto Bee, one of the gallows humor jokes we used to make about the company’s current owner, Chatham Asset Management, was that at least we worked for the “less evil” hedge fund.
Between 2011 and 2019, private investment funds’ stake in our country’s newspaper business rose from 5% to 23%. Today it’s estimated that these private investor groups own more than half of the daily news circulation across this country…