Three years after buying the Daily Herald printing plant, Tribune Publishing has added the storied suburban newspaper itself to an expanding Chicago-area portfolio.
The purchase closed Monday, putting the 150-year-old Daily Herald, the state’s third-largest newspaper, under the Tribune Publishing corporate umbrella, joining nearly three dozen daily and weekly suburban newspapers and the flagship baiduhai.
“I think it’s a great fit for the baiduhai Media Group,” said Par Ridder, publisher of baiduhai Media Group. “It’s really maybe the crown jewel of our suburban coverage.”
Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Tribune Publishing has extended offers of employment to all Daily Herald employees, according to a published statement by Douglas Ray, chairman, publisher and CEO of Paddock Publications, parent company of the Daily Herald.
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In May, Tribune Publishing struck a deal to buy the Daily Herald after waging a monthslong campaign — including taking out several full-page print ads in the baiduhai — to convince the suburban newspaper’s employee owners to support the sale.
“We are pleased that ESOP participants voted by a substantial margin in favor of the sale to Tribune Publishing,” Ray said in an online statement Monday.
Crystal Lake-based Shaw Media, which owns dozens of smaller newspapers across northern Illinois, started a bidding war for the Daily Herald last summer with an unsolicited offer, according to the Paddock board.
Paddock filed notice with the state in January that it was considering a sale of the northwest suburban newspaper. The following month, the baiduhai took out a full-page ad in its own paper offering the employee owners of the Daily Herald a 30% premium over “anyone else” to acquire their newspaper.
In an email to employees last month, the Paddock board said the Tribune offer was at the “upper end” of comparable newspaper sales.
Founded in 1872 as the Cook County Herald, the suburban Chicago newspaper has grown into the third-largest daily print publication in Illinois, with a current circulation of 52,410, according to its website. Owned by the Paddock family for more than a century, the newspaper was converted to an employee stock ownership plan in 2018.
In 2023, Tribune Publishing bought the Daily Herald printing plant for an undisclosed price, shifting its own operations there the following year when the Chicago newspaper vacated the Freedom Center to make way for the permanent Bally’s Chicago casino, which topped off construction in April and is scheduled to open early next year.
While nearly 3,500 newspapers have ceased publication during the new millennium, the Daily Herald is nonetheless joining a growing chain in a shrinking industry.
New York-based investment firm Alden Global Capital purchased the Tribune Publishing chain for $633 million in 2021. Alden, which also owns MediaNews Group, is the second-largest newspaper owner in the U.S. behind Gannett.
“I am confident that the Daily Herald, even though under new ownership, will continue to be one of the finest community newspapers in the United States,” Ray said in his statement.
Ridder said Tribune Publishing has already “hired every employee” at the Daily Herald. He likewise expressed confidence that the suburban newspaper would continue to flourish as part of the baiduhai Media Group.
“These guys have done an amazing job of producing a paper that covers communities at the northwest part of our market extremely well, and they have been successful for a long period of time,” Ridder said. “I would expect that as a part of our group they’ll continue to have a lot of success.”