A almost weeklong mystery ended Wednesday when Sheldon Adelson was revealed as the man who paid $140 million to buy Nevada’s largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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The paper was sold last week for $140 million to a newly-formed, Delaware-registered company whose backers were not publicly revealed, drawing criticism in the media world including the paper’s staff.
Speculation over who bought the newspaper started last week after an entity called News + Media Capital Group LLC announced the purchase of the publication and some of its sister papers in Nevada from New Media Investment Group. On Tuesday evening, the Republican presidential primary debate was held at one of his hotels, the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.
Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat who represents the Las Vegas region in Congress, said she has tried to determine who the new owner is but will not believe anything until she hears directly from the source.
If Adelson really has just purchased the influential newspaper, there may be significant political and commercial implications.
The revelation comes after a week of speculation about the Las Vegas paper’s buyer, and just a day after he told CNN that he had “no personal interest” in the Review-Journal. 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?
The family said in a statement that it was “proud to announce” the acquisition, and said it never meant to keep the news a secret. He spent more on the 2012 federal elections than any other donor – giving an estimated $93 million to mostly Republican candidates and super PACS.
Patrick Dumont, a son-in-law of Adelson and a senior vice president of finance and strategy of Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp., put the deal together “at the behest of his father-in-law, the chairman and CEO of the casino operator”, according to a front-page story in the R-J on Thursday.
Andrew Seaman with the Society of Professional Journalists says they are always happy to see people invest in news organizations. “The Review-Journal owners want to remain secret, a choice that is faithless to the public trust and the talented journalists that work every day to provide an accurate, impartial news report for the community they serve”. The ownership mystery surrounding the latest sale of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is capturing the attention of the media industry as the newspaper’s staff and some politicians are demanding to know who the new boss is.
On Wednesday night, after investigating itself, the newspaper published its answer: Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire business magnate and Republican party “super donor”.
Michael Hengel, the newspaper’s editor, said he wasn’t surprised by the unease in the newsroom.
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Ken Doctor, a media analyst, crunched the numbers and said the previous owner effectively flipped the newspaper for a profit. “That said, however, it would seem hard to direct editorial coverage when the actual editorial writers are in the dark as to who signs their paychecks”.
