After six days of stony silence and a brief non-denial denial by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson himself over rumors that he secretly bought the paper last Thursday, the Journal-Review reported online Wednesday night that his son-in-law had orchestrated the sale.
Advertisement
Until Wednesday, the only information released about the new buyer was that it was News + Media Capital Group of DE, which paid $140 million.
LAS VEGAS – The ownership mystery surrounding the sale of the Las Vegas Review-Journal has captured the attention of the media industry as the newspaper’s staff and some politicians demand to know the identity of the new boss.
The Adelson family said it didn’t want to disclose earlier that it was behind the purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal to avoid distracting from the Republican presidential primary debate that took place in town at the Venetian this week.
“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 paper reported that Schroeder had worked with another man who now runs a news service that distributes content from one of the newspapers that Adelson owns in Israel.
Once the news was published, reporter Carol Cling tweeted “no matter who owns the Review-Journal, they don’t own us”.
Andrew Seaman, the Society of Professional Journalists’ ethics committee chairman, was unconvinced.
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. “Its hard to ask the public to trust a newspaper that is unwilling to reveal its ownership and their ties to other private interests”. Publisher Jason Taylor and Ron Reese, a spokesman for Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp., couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Speculation focusing on Adelson has pundits theorizing that the deep-pocketed GOP kingmaker could be planning to use the paper to sway the presidential race. Adelson founded Israel Hayom, a free daily newspaper that supports Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of whom Adelson is a fervent supporter.
The mystery is finally solved. His influential Republican Jewish Coalition presidential forum draws the top GOP candidates.
Schroeder said News + Media had been aiming to buy the newspaper for six to eight months.
Adelson is expected to spend upward of $100 million this election cycle, making his endorsement one of the most sought after among Republican hopefuls. How that will play out is still up in the air, especially since Review Journal’s editorial writers are in the dark as to who really signs their paychecks.
Advertisement
“We look at this as a possible new business model”, said Davis, who told employees he hoped the management agreement would be long-term.
