By Charlotte West
Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink is the story of a secretive hedge fund that is plundering what is left of America’s newspapers, and the journalists who are fighting back.
As your newsletter editor, I sat down with Voices co-founder Julie Reynolds to talk about the documentary, her investigation, and why local journalism matters now more than ever. We hope this Q&A inspires you to watch or stream the film on PBS, and continue the conversation about the future of independent news in our region.
〉Read Julie’s 2022 investigation into the owner of the Monterey County Herald and the Santa Cruz Sentinel: “First they came for the newspapers. Then for mobile home parks.”
When you started investigating what happened to your own paper, the Monterey County Herald, where you worked for 10 years, you uncovered a pattern affecting over 100 newspapers nationwide. When did you realize this was bigger than just a local story?
I really saw the pattern of what our owner, Alden Global Capital, was doing when I noticed that it wasn’t just The Herald that had lost its real estate and printing presses. I discovered an Alden subsidiary online that was holding a mass sell-off of the buildings of all the newspapers in our chain. That’s when I realized that news outlets across the country were being intentionally downsized by a New York hedge fund that had no interest or experience in journalism. That’s what “Stripped for Parts” refers to — it was like a chop shop for local news.
2. The film shows how your investigation helped trigger what became known as the ‘Denver Rebellion’ – journalists at The Denver Post fighting back against Alden. Did you realize your reporting would inspire journalists at other papers across the country?
I was in close touch with a lot of reporters in our union, The NewsGuild, while I was investigating Alden. But I had no idea what was cooking in Denver until the night before it happened. It was so stunning and so courageous. I mean, people there lost their jobs. They went way beyond anything I did, but I was proud to be a small part of it.
3. The film shows how local newspapers are disappearing across America, leaving communities without watchdog journalism. How does Voices fit into addressing that crisis here on the Central Coast?
Voices is not and doesn’t try to be “the local paper of record.” We call ourselves a magazine because we are more like the Sunday magazines that newspapers used to publish. Except we’re bilingual, nonprofit, deeply rooted in our community, and we also train young journalists.
4. You hosted a Del Mar Theatre screening last month with leaders from other local and state news organizations like Lookout Santa Cruz and CalMatters. Why was it important to bring this conversation about the future of journalism to our region?
All of us in the independent and nonprofit news arena have crucial roles to play, and all of these news outlets need community support. In California and the Monterey Bay Area specifically, people are very active in civic life and want to support independent news sources. I’m inspired by both CalMatters and Lookout’s models for reinventing local and regional news.
5. What do you want people to take away from watching ‘Stripped for Parts’? What should audiences be thinking about as they leave the theater?
I don’t want viewers to be depressed — I want them to feel energized and motivated! We’re in an era when we can never again take independent, trustworthy local news for granted. So I hope people keep talking with their friends about the issue, talk to local leaders and support the publications of their choice whenever they can.
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