Return The Baltimore Sun to local ownership under a nonprofit model.

Save Our Sun [mailto:info@kopublicaffairs.com]

Monday, May 18, 2020 12:04 PM

Tell Your Friends to Help Save Our Sun

Return The Baltimore Sun to local ownership under a nonprofit model.

Sign our petition to show your support: https://www.saveourbaltimoresun.com/join-us. It will be delivered to the Board of Directors at Tribune Publishing.

We are a group of Baltimoreans and Marylanders, including leaders in business and the community as well as ordinary citizens, who write to urge you to consider selling The Baltimore Sun to a well-capitalized coalition of Baltimore foundations that would position this treasured 183-year-old newspaper as a locally-owned, not-for-profit media organization. As you may know, this effort to preserve and promote a critical institution, under the name Save our Sun, has already received national news coverage and the support of Maryland’s congressional representatives.  

In April, Maryland’s two U.S. senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, called upon Alden Global Capital President Heath Bradford Freeman to follow-up with Save Our Sun’s chairperson, Ted Venetoulis, about the local acquisition effort. We believe that immediate negotiations with the prospective local ownership group will lead to a beneficial outcome both for Tribune shareholders and for current and future readers of The Sun.

From 1837, when A.S. Abell launched a four-page tabloid in a bustling port city, through the heyday of H.L. Mencken in the 20th century, to the much-deserved award of the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting on May 3 of this year, The Baltimore Sun has been a crucial watchdog over government, a thoughtful investigator of community problems and a lively chronicler of Maryland life from arts to sports. In recent years, The Sun provided superb coverage of the upheaval following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, exposed the deep corruption in the Baltimore Police Department and unearthed the scandal that led to the mayor’s resignation and prosecution.

Yet 20 years of Tribune ownership has seen the newsroom shrink by more than 75 percent, and in the current COVID 19 crisis, business prospects under the current model are not encouraging either for The Sun or for Tribune shareholders. Leaders of the Abell Foundation, created with proceeds from the newspaper’s original sale, the Goldseker Foundation, and Mr. Venetoulis, a former Baltimore County executive, believe new, local ownership can rally community support and reinvigorate The Sun, assuring its future strength and growth. We urge you to immediately assign a group of independent directors to advise the board on a transaction that will benefit all parties.

More names will make a difference. This week, we will be delivering our petition to Tribune Publishing's Board of Directors. Before we do, we are looking for additional support. You can help to build on the momentum by forwarding this petition to five friends you think would support our efforts in returning The Baltimore Sun to local ownership and nonprofit status.

SIGN OUR PETITION

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs