“This week, with each of the Republican candidates for president and the national media descending on Las Vegas for the year’s final debate, we did not want an announcement to distract from the important role Nevada continues to play in the 2016 presidential election”.
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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.
News + Media Capital Group, a Delaware-based corporation founded in September, purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal and its sister publications on December 11 for $140 million.
The Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest daily paper, has long piqued Mr. Adelson’s interest, according to people familiar with the matter, though one person said he hasn’t expressed interest in other American media properties. Tuesday night’s GOP presidential debate was held at his Las Vegas casino.
Nevertheless, some digging by the RJ’s James DeHaven, Howard Stutz and Jennifer Robison not only revealed Adelson as the purchaser.
The company that sold the Las Vegas Review-Journal to billionaire casino mogul and GOP mega donor Sheldon Adelson is defending the transaction and slamming the media. That included one in which News + Media’s manager, Michael Schroeder, implored staff to focus on their jobs and not worry about the new owners.
“Does the Review-Journal have the credibility to advocate for such openness?” the editorial board wrote Wednesday.
“The lack of disclosure of the newspaper’s new ownership group compromises this publication’s ability to demand transparency of others”, it continued.
Adelson’s litigious history with the press also has been a cause for concern.
Adelson-said to be worth an estimated $28 million as the chairman and chief executive of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns gambling resorts in Singapore and Macao, as well as the Venetian in Vegas-had been rumored to be the buyer, although he hadn’t acknowledged his ownership as of late Wednesday.
The Case of the Secret Buyer of the Las Vegas Review-Journal has been solved.
A source told the Review-Journal that Dumont handles family investments. Not disclosing ownership, they said, raises ethical questions about how reporters can possibly disclose conflicts of interest with the company that signs their paychecks. The Review-Journal’s publisher, Jason Taylor, also declined to identify the buyer, the paper reported. Additionally, Adelson is deeply embroiled in a battle over whether the federal government should ban internet gambling: He supports a ban, but stands almost alone in the casino industry in that position.
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It was announced last week that the sale of the newspaper to News + Media Capital Group for $140m from New Media Investment Group had been completed, though the identity of the owner of News + Media was not revealed.
