Staffers of Nevada’s largest daily and journalism sleuths elsewhere have been digging to try and find out who shelled out $140 million for the newspaper earlier this week, with circumstantial evidence and reports piling up that casino magnate and political mega-donor Sheldon Adelson is behind the purchase.
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For almost a week, journalists and staff of the Nevada newspaper played the game, “Who is our new boss?” after learning that the newspaper and some of its sister publications have been sold to Delaware-based News + Media Capital Group LLC.
Ron Reese, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands Corp., said in an email Wednesday that he had no information on the matter and wouldn’t comment on reports of Adelson buying the paper. Tuesday’s CNN-hosted Republican debate also took place at the Venetian, a Las Vegas casino-hotel that’s part of Adelson’s empire.
In any case, whoever bought the paper really seems to have wanted it. The $140 million price tag is a rich premium over what New Media Investment Group paid for the paper and related publications just nine months ago. The state will be the third in the nation to hold a Democratic primary (Feb. 20) and the fourth for Republicans (Feb. 23), giving it a pivotal role.
Adelson, who has donated more than $100 million to nearly exclusively conservative political causes, including more than $92 million alone in the 2012 presidential election to try to defeat President Barack Obama in his reelection, has not been shy about using his Isreali newspapers as a political cudgel.
Schroeder offered no comment in an email Tuesday.
Adelson, Ralston said, remains the most likely candidate. 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. “The losers in this are the readers of the daily American newspaper”, Doctor said. The publisher has said that the new owners won’t be involved in news and editorial decisions. Journalists have run into obstacles covering the mystery, with publisher Jason Taylor stopping the presses to remove quotes from the paper’s editor expressing concern over the buyer’s secret arrangement. “Its hard to ask the public to trust a newspaper that is unwilling to reveal its ownership and their ties to other private interests”. He already owns a newspaper, Israel Hayom, in Israel. After meeting with the newspaper’s editorial board on Monday, a day before a Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas, former Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush tweeted about the session: “Only q left unanswered – who owns the newspaper?”
“People are both mystified and outraged and just trying to figure out the motivation for keeping the secret”, Ralston said in an interview Wednesday.
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The confirmation, reported in Thursday’s paper, came after the mysterious new owner of the paper declined to reveal him or herself for a week.
