Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is the new owner of Nevada’s largest daily newspaper, the Las Vegas Review Journal confirmed.
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The family of billionaire casino mogul and GOP kingmaker Adelson confirmed in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that they are the new owners of Nevada’s largest newspaper, ending a week of speculation and demands by staff and politicians to know the identity of the new boss. On Tuesday evening, the Republican presidential primary debate was held at one of his hotels, the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.
“We understand the desire of the hard-working staff at the R-J and others in the community to know the identity of the paper’s new owners, and it was always our intention to publicly announce our ownership”, the family statement said.
The Review-Journal reported Wednesday night that Adelson didn’t personally buy the paper, but had his son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, orchestrate the deal.
It said that the 41-year-old Dumont, a NY attorney, in 2009 married Sivan Ochshorn, a daughter of Adelson’s wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, from a prior marriage.
Michael Schroeder, a Connecticut-based publishing executive who identified himself to the paper’s staff as manager of the News + Media Capital Group, declined to comment when reached Monday.
That’s around $38 million more than New Media Investment Group paid in March for all of Stephens Media LLC, a national chain of newspapers that included the Review-Journal, eight other dailies and 65 weekly newspapers. The casino company didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The secretiveness of the deal, in which the newspaper refused to reveal its new owner, got him off to a rocky start with colleagues in his new business venture.
The Adelsons say the paper was purchased as an investment both financially and in the Las Vegas community.
“The management team from New Media, which is now running the R-J, will continue to oversee the operations of the publication”. Wednesday afternoon, 8 News NOW broke the news that Fortune.com was reporting that Adelson was the owner.
In the 2012 campaign, Adelson spent more than any other donor, at about $90 million. He already owns a newspaper, Israel Hayom, in Israel. Not disclosing ownership, they said, raises ethical questions about how reporters can possibly disclose conflicts of interest with the company that signs their paychecks. “Might the newspaper cover or ignore a story, or might this editorial page support a position, person or plan, because it directly benefits The Review-Journal’s owners?” “We now expect that of those behind News + Media Capital Group LLC”.
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Speculation immediately turned to the political influence that Adelson could exert in his home state, a major presidential battleground in November 2016, and host to early Democratic and Republican nominating contests as well as a highly competitive U.S. Senate race.
