Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman. All right. I don't see anybody else in the queue for announcements, so we're going to move on. There are no presentations this evening and there are no communications. We do have one proclamation, however. Councilman Flynn, will you please read Proclamation 1387?
Speaker 2: Yes, Mr. President, I will. Proclamation 19, Dash 1387, urging all in global capital to either invest in local journalism or divest its interests. Whereas all little global capital, the hedge fund that controls more than 100 local and regional newspapers, including The Denver Post, has had a devastating effect on local journalism around the nation. And. WHEREAS, since Alden Global Capital took control of MediaNews Group in 2011, its newspapers, including The Denver Post, have been gutted, their staffs slashed and many of their assets sold. And. WHEREAS, staff at the Denver Post has been reduced by 75% in those eight years and staff at newspapers. ALDEN Global Capital Controls has been reduced by more than twice the industry's national average since 2012. And. WHEREAS, 21 U.S. senators, in a letter to Alden's leadership in May this year, condemned the hedge funds pattern of profiteering and its, quote, newspaper killing business model as, quote, bad for newspaper workers and retirees, bad for communities, bad for the public and bad for democracy. And. Whereas, researchers have noted a correlation between diminished local news coverage of public affairs and increases in some government costs, including bond rates and taxes. And. Whereas, Alden Global Capital is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor after investing close to $250 million of employee pension money in Alden controlled funds. And. Whereas, a recent analysis has found a correlation between the loss of local newspapers and lower voter turnout and increased partizanship. And. WHEREAS, statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke referred to the Free Press as the Fourth Estate of the Realm because of its vital role in political advocacy in democratic societies, now therefore be proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver. Section one The Denver City Council urges Alden Global Capital either to invest in the Denver Post and its other newspaper properties so that they may more expansively perform their role in the community or sell its interest in the Denver Post and its other newspaper properties to civic minded entities that will take up that duty. Section two that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall affix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that copies be transmitted to Alden Global Capital and to the Denver Newspaper Guild.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Flynn. Your motion to adopt.
Speaker 2: Mr. President, I move that proclamation 19 dash 1387 be adopted.
Speaker 0: Thank you. It has been moved and seconded. Comments by members of Council. Councilman Flynn.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mr. President, I want to say just a few things. First, I want it to be made clear that in no way is it the intent of this council or this proclamation, or by me personally to in any way imply that the journalism that is being done by the Denver Post or other newspapers similarly situated, is in some way deficient. Some great journalism is being done. The problem is, as I see it and as I hope my colleagues see it, is that not enough of it is being done. You simply cannot cover a community with 25% of the staff that used to cover it. It takes a well-resourced, a well-paid and a well-trained staff to cover. The folks up here and the folks up on the other end of Civic Center and the folks in the business community on 17th Street. And in our local communities and in our neighborhoods. It takes people to do that. A newspaper is more than just a business. It's an institution. It's what Burke said. It's it's the fourth estate. It is an integral part of the civic conversation and of democracy. It isn't simply a Sears or a Woolworth's or or some other store or business that runs purely on the bottom line . It's it's a reflection of the people and their values in the community. And so it requires a little more thinking than what just goes into the bottom line. I want to quote a constituent of mine who happens also to be a former editorial page editor of The Post, and that's Chuck Plunkett, Harvey Park resident who looked almost two years ago now, I think it was in April of 2018, very bravely put together a package of editorials, including a lead House editorial that attacked its owners, Alden Global Capital, and said, either invest in us or sell us to someone who.
Speaker 3: Will.
Speaker 2: Who will invest in those resources. And in an interview after he was forced out, after about a month after a month of censorship and of demands that he submit his product to to a publisher, which he had not had to do before, he turned in his resignation. And he was interviewed in Rolling Stone magazine. And among the things he said that the erosion of quality local journalism in the short sighted service of obscene profit taking is destroying the public trust in what we do. And, Mr. President, I think that's my fear with the loss of a daily newspaper of record type journalism in Denver , is that we're destroying the public trust with all the profit taking. And believe me, there is a lot of profit to be taking because as I see it, The Denver Post is very profitable. And there's no reason, literally no reason that they have to operate on 25% of the staff that they operated on before. I say this with a great deal of caution, by the way, because, you know, we could be targeted something at some point and we will maybe, probably should at some point. But that's that's how that's how our society in a free society is structured. We need. We need a free press. We need the fourth estate. So with that, Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to support me in adopting this. We've been through committee as our rules require. When the council does a proclamation that takes a position on policy and issues of this type, and I asked for affirmative votes from my colleagues. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilman Flynn, Councilwoman Cannick.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to just thank my colleague, Councilman Flynn, for bringing this forward. I think that it's a really confusing time because you can hear a narrative out there that indicates that the media is no longer kind of a viable industry, that that really, you know, you can't really figure out the numbers anymore. But I feel like increasingly there are stories that indicate if we, as consumers of news and readers of news, are willing to pay modest subscription prices and pay for the value of the information we receive, that many newspapers are coming back. And so one of the things I don't want our proclamation to do tonight is to encourage people to stop supporting local news because we're frustrated with the ownership. It's hard. I feel very mixed about what I consider to be unreasonable subscription rates that I know are not going to pay reporters. But I also know that if we do not stand by our local news, then we won't be seeing it. And whether that's a contribution that you make to Colorado Public Radio or folks where you do it through, you know, contributions, whether it's through subscriptions. I think that the more we invest directly in our media rather than relying on corporate advertisers, I do think that that is a really important model. So as as much as I enthusiastically support this proclamation tonight, and I'm unhappy to see that the dollars that we invest in our local news are going to a hedge fund capitalist . I think it's critical that we keep supporting this paper as we do all the other news sources that we rely on in our local media. And I want to, you know, again, urge Alden Capital to divest. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilwoman. And thank you, Councilman Flynn, for bringing this forward, seeing no other comments. Madam Secretary, call.
Speaker 1: Flynn. I like I said I. Gillmor, i.
Speaker 3: Herndon, i. Hines, I. Cashman All right.
Speaker 1: Kenny Ortega. Sandoval. I swear, I. Torres, I. Mr. President.
Speaker 0: I. Madam Secretary, please close voting and announce the results. 1313 I as proclamation 1387 has been adopted. Desmond Flynn Was there anybody you wanted to bring up for this or just are we done here?
Speaker 2: Yes, there is, Mr. President, given that all the reporters and writers are probably working on deadline at the moment, we do have from the Denver Newspaper Guild, we have Tony Mulligan and we have some folks supporting him here. But I wanted to call Tony up to the microphone just to say a few words about the news matters campaign and and have 5 minutes to do so or up to 5 minutes. Thank you, Tony.
Speaker 3: The Guild again, thanks the Council for passing this proclamation. It's actually the second that's on the similar issue, and I appreciate what Councilman Flynn and Ken each had to say. To me, the most shocking numbers is that all the global capital, the owners of media, news group, Digital First Media, they've cut their staff at a 75% clip while the industry average is 25%. It's correct that the industry is suffering that with the evolution of online revenue is going down, but other owners are managing to maintain their staff at a much higher rate than digital first media. So we appreciate your demand that they either invest in the paper to where they can continue to serve the community, be a viable resource for the community, be informed and or sell it to a local civic minded owner. That will do so. So we thank you for your proclamation. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Could you identify and identify yourself, please?
Speaker 3: My name is Ken Valero. I'm an employee in the mailroom of the Denver Post.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to read something very briefly.
Speaker 3: I speak in full support of the Denver Newspaper Guild, representing as I represent the Denver Post mailroom employees as president of the Denver Millers Union Number eight. As with the Guild, we have had no reason three years. We have nationalities from all over the world working in the mailroom Vietnamese, which make up about 30% of our workforce Hispanics, Russians, Indians from India and Somalis. We are a genuine aging workforce. We have not had a single new full time employee hired in the mailroom in 20 years. This is a profitable company. And in addition to the profit made from the newsroom and advertising departments, a lot of that profit is produced in the mailroom. By the ad inserts we put in the newspapers and the Post-it notes we put on the front pages of the various newspapers that the post prints with the cuts and our shifts and benefits, those of us who have remained have our workload greatly increased with fewer employees working. I want to thank you for passing this resolution. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. President.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman. All right. That concludes our proclamations this evening. Madam Secretary, will you please read the bills for introduction.
A proclamation urging Alden Global Capital to either invest in local journalism or divest its interests.