On October 15, the Daily Bulletin editorial board endorsed a no vote on Measure Y, Pomona’s Kids First Initiative, blasting the Measure for “unnecessary bureaucracy.” The board takes exception to the hiring of staff that would provide oversight and accountability for the Child and Youth Fund. Ironically, lack of oversight and accountability has been one of the opposition to Measure Y’s major complaints about the Initiative.
Further, the Daily Bulletin editorial board complains that the proposal is backed by a litany of nonprofit organizations. “We’re sure they do good work, but we don’t see any justification for tying the hands of city officials when it comes to the city’s budget.”
This comes as no big surprise.
The Daily Bulletin is owned by Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund based in New York, known for gutting local news and weighing in on the side of the power elites. While the Daily Bulletin masquerades as a local news source, it would be more accurate to typify it as a global news source -and a predatory one at that.
In 2021, when Alden Global Capital acquired Southern California News Group. News Guild described Alden’s strip-mining model as a gut-punch to local news rooms. Though Alden Global Capital once invested in an array of industries, including retail chains, Alden is now almost entirely focused on acquiring and sacking local news chains, reports News Guild.
Vanity Fair has described Alden as the grim reaper of American newspapers.
Since Alden’s takeover of The Daily Bulletin, reporting of local news has diminished in the region. Aside from profiles on some of the candidates for school board and city council, the Daily Bulletin has not published a story about Pomona’s politics since March 2024. The article was about Pomona’s new city manager.
Unfortunately, this follows a dangerous national trend. According to a study by Pew Research, Americans are connecting less with local news. The share of Americans who say they follow local news very closely has fallen by 15 percentage points since 2016 (from 37% to 22%).
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