The Virginian-Pilot is the daily newspaper for Hampton Roads , Virginia. Commonly known as The Pilot , it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. It was a locally owned, family enterprise from its founding in 1865 at the close of the American Civil War until its sale to Tribune Publishing in 2018. Its headquarters is in Newport News , and prior to 2020 was in Norfolk .
23-564: The Virginian-Pilot is owned by parent company, Tribune Publishing. This company was acquired by Alden Global Capital , which operates its media properties through Digital First Media , in May 2021. The newspaper has won three Pulitzer Prizes. The first was won in 1929 by editor Louis Jaffe , who received the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for " An Unspeakable Act of Savagery ", an editorial which condemned lynching . Jaffe mentored
46-494: A 2008 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission , Alden is a division of Smith Management LLC. The company has its origins in R.D. Smith & Company, a firm founded by Randall Duncan Smith, initially using the $ 20,000 cash prize he and his wife won on the 1968-1970 gameshow Dream House . In 1991, The New York Times described R.D. Smith & Company's business as "profiting from other people's misery by trading
69-674: A group of investors led by NBC Universal . In Norfolk, on September 1, 1923, the company founded Virginia's first radio station , WTAR . In 1950 it added Channel 4 WTAR-TV (now Channel 3 WTKR ) and in 1961, it signed on 95.7 WTAR-FM (now WVKL ). The paper was among the first available online as a part of the Compuserve experiment in early 1980s where the paper and 10 others around the country transmitted text versions of stories daily to Compuserve 's host computers in Ohio. Frank Batten Jr. became publisher in 1991 and expanded on digitizing
92-468: A podcast in 2017. The Shot Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine was created by reporters Gary Harki and Joanne Kimberlin and dealt with the unsolved 2010 murder of Norfolk police officer Victor Decker. After The Pilot was sold to Tronc in 2018, no new publisher was named. Marisa Porto was named the newspaper's editor, but she left the next year. Interim General Manager Par Ridder said
115-593: A search would begin for a new editor for the newsroom and a new general manager to oversee the business side of the newspaper. Kris Worrell was named by Ridder as The Pilot ' s editor on July 22, 2019. She had previously been the executive editor of The Press of Atlantic City . Worrell graduated from Kempsville High in Virginia Beach and worked previously both for The Pilot and the Daily Press . The paper's offices are shared with its sister paper,
138-608: A share in cash, or about $ 141 million. Lee owns daily newspapers in 77 markets in 26 states, and about 350 weekly and specialty publications. Newspapers in Alden's portfolio include Chicago Tribune , The Denver Post , the St. Paul Pioneer Press , the Boston Herald , The Mercury News , East Bay Times , The Orange County Register , and Orlando Sentinel . Alden has a reputation for sharply cutting costs by reducing
161-654: The Daily Press and are located at 703 Mariners Row, Newport News, VA 23606. It is in the City Center at Oyster Point complex. Both papers are owned by Tribune Publishing. Beginning circa 1937, the headquarters were in Norfolk. In 2020, the newspaper moved, as Monument Companies bought the Norfolk complex for $ 9,500,000. This complex became Pilot Place, an apartment complex. The new headquarters in Newport News
184-728: The Ledger-Star (which ceased publication in 1995) were created by Samuel L. Slover as the result of several mergers of papers dating back to 1865. The Virginian-Pilot covered the Wright brothers ' early flights. Slover's nephew Frank Batten Sr. became publisher at age 27 in 1954. He expanded the Virginian-Pilot ' s parent company, which soon evolved into Landmark Communications and later Landmark Media Enterprises , by acquiring other newspapers and radio and television stations and by creating The Weather Channel , now owned by
207-569: The March 2022 board elections. This attempt also failed, as shareholders returned both directors to the Lee board despite Alden's opposition. Alden Global Capital includes a real estate division called Twenty Lake Holdings, which primarily buys excess real estate from newspapers. In 2019, Twenty Lake Holdings reported that it had acquired about 180 properties with 2.3 million square feet of real estate in 29 states. In December 2022, Twenty Lake acquired
230-588: The board of Lee Enterprises enacted a shareholder rights plan, colloquially known as a "poison pill" , in order to ward off the purchase attempt. The specific shareholder rights plan adopted by the Lee board forbids Alden from purchasing more than 10% of the company, and will be in force for one year. The rationale offered by the board was, “Consistent with its fiduciary duties, Lee’s Board has taken this action to ensure our shareholders receive fair treatment, full transparency and protection in connection with Alden’s unsolicited proposal to acquire Lee." In early December,
253-482: The board of Lee unanimously rejected the Alden bid, saying that the Alden proposal "grossly undervalues Lee and fails to recognize the strength of our business today." Shortly thereafter, Alden Global, through its operating unit Strategic Investment Opportunities, filed a lawsuit in state court in Delaware against Lee Enterprises. The Alden lawsuit asserts that the members of the Lee board "have every reason to maintain
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#1732783995435276-556: The jobs of scores of reporters and editors, and decimated journalism in cities all over the country: Denver, Boston, San Jose, Trenton, etc. Next up: Chicago, Baltimore, and the New York Daily News ." In October 2021, The Atlantic examined the impact of Alden's acquisition of the Chicago Tribune , noting that, "The new owners did not fly to Chicago to address the staff, nor did they bother with paeans to
299-583: The number of journalists working on its newspapers. In March 2018, Margaret Sullivan , the media columnist for The Washington Post , called Alden "one of the most ruthless of the corporate strip-miners seemingly intent on destroying local journalism" and Vanity Fair dubbed Alden the "grim reaper of American newspapers." Alden received critical coverage from the editorial staff at the Denver Post , who described Alden Global Capital as "vulture capitalists" after multiple staff layoffs. According to
322-569: The paper's Norfolk headquarters and its printing plant in Virginia Beach. Alden Global Capital Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan , New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith , and is a division of Smith Management LLC. Its managing director is Heath Freeman . By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. The company added more newspapers to its portfolio in May 2021 when it purchased Tribune Publishing and became
345-759: The paper's next editor, Lenoir Chambers , who in 1960 received the same prize for his editorials on desegregation , as exemplified by " The Year Virginia Closed the Schools " and " The Year Virginia Opened the Schools ". The paper was one of the few in Virginia to publicly support the end of Jim Crow . In 1985, Thomas Turcol was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for his coverage of corruption in Chesapeake . Reporters at The Pilot have also finished as Pulitzer finalists three times since 2007. The Virginian-Pilot and its sister afternoon edition,
368-406: The paper. In 1993 The Virginian-Pilot was one of the first newspapers in the country to launch a sister website, Pilotonline.com. Batten Jr. stepped down as the paper's publisher, becoming Landmark Communications' Chairman and CEO. "Dee" Carpenter became publisher in 1995, followed by Bruce Bradley in 2005, Maurice Jones in 2008, David Mele in 2012 and Patricia Richardson in 2014. The paper published
391-820: The remaining 33 bus stations owned by Greyhound Lines . The firm subsequently began selling the properties for real estate development after closing the stations. The company has been criticized for investing money for pensions of newspaper employees in funds it manages itself. Alden Global Capital's management of American newspapers has been heavily criticized. In 2018, Margaret Sullivan of The Washington Post described Alden as "seemingly intent on destroying local newspapers." Writing for Bloomberg , Joe Nocera similarly described Alden and its president, Heath Freeman, as "a destroyer of newspapers." In 2020, Joe Pompeo pilloried Alden in Vanity Fair for reducing newsrooms, writing that "Alden Global Capital has eliminated
414-615: The second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States. The company operates its media holdings through Digital First Media (DFM), which it acquired in 2010 after DMG's parent company, MediaNews Group , declared bankruptcy. With its acquisition of Tribune Publishing in late May 2021, Alden is collectively the second-largest owner of newspapers in the United States, as calculated by average daily print circulation, second only to Gannett . In November 2021, Alden Global Capital made an offer to purchase Lee Enterprises for $ 24
437-420: The status quo and their lucrative corporate positions" and that they are "focused more on [their] own power than what's best for the company." In mid-February 2022, the Delaware court found in favor of Lee Enterprises. In the face of that setback, Alden said it would turn to the tactic of filing a proxy statement asking the company's shareholders to vote no on board members Mary Junck and Herbert Moloney during
460-833: The stock and debt of troubled companies." Under the acquisition plan, MediaNews Group debt fell to $ 165 million from about $ 930 million. Senior lenders under the deal were to swap debt for stock. MediaNews Group came out of bankruptcy in March 2010 under the majority ownership of its lenders. The appointees to the MediaNews board were replaced by new directors representing the stockholders group led by Alden Global Capital. Several interim executive positions were also filled by people related to Alden or its parent, Smith Management LLC. In May 2021, Tribune Publishing finalized its sale to Alden, after having announced in February 2021 that it intended to pursue this path. Alden's purchase price
483-720: Was $ 635 million, or $ 17.25 per share. Tribune Publishing published nine major metropolitan dailies. These included the Chicago Tribune , the New York Daily News , and The Baltimore Sun . The Daily News was transferred by Alden into a separate Alden-owned company, Daily News Enterprises, upon the close of the deal. Alden first became involved with Tribune Publishing in 2019, when they paid $ 117.9 million to Michael Ferro for his 25.2-percent stake. Alden sold The Baltimore Sun in January 2024 to David D. Smith , executive chairman of Sinclair Inc. The purchase price
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#1732783995435506-508: Was already the offices of the Daily Press , which was the lessee. Since December, 2014, the Pilot ' s single copy prices are: $ 1 Daily, $ 2.50 Sunday/ Thanksgiving Day . On May 29, 2018, The Virginian-Pilot was purchased by Chicago-based media conglomerate Tribune Publishing, formerly known as Tronc, for a cash price of $ 34 million. The deal included the Pilot and all of its "outstanding interests" — including its subsidiary publications,
529-618: Was not immediately disclosed. In 2019, Alden attempted, but failed at, a hostile takeover of Gannett . Alden purchased a 5.9-percent stake in Lee Enterprises in January 2020. Lee Enterprises owns 77 daily newspapers, including the Buffalo News , Omaha World-Herald and the Tulsa World . In November 2021, Alden made an offer to Lee to purchase the company in its entirety for roughly $ 141 million. In response,
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