‘Project Thunderdome’ Company Sold To Hedge Fund

The Journal Register Company, home of the Open Newsroom project, the Ben Franklin Project, “Project Thunderdome” and a CEO who actually gives his employees bonuses, has been purchased by Alden Global Capital, paidContent reports.

This is, CEO John Paton told PaidContent, actually a good thing. “It has been my goal since the beginning to find a backer who will validate the ‘Digital First’ strategy and give us the financial firepower to expand.” He added, “We have shown the naysayers we could do just that. Great day for us.”

According to Paton’s blog, Alden has been an investor in JRC “for some time” and “they know what we do, they like what we do, and today they are putting their money behind our efforts.”

JRC emerged from bankruptcy almost two years ago and has been investing heavily in a digital-first strategy that has been growing digital revenues by 70 percent, and may be able to replace every lost print ad dollar with an online dollar.

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