Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson is the new owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Review-Journal staff found itself in the unusual position of having to investigate the company that on December 11 paid $140 million to buy it, News + Media Capital Group. The Review-Journal is Nevada’s largest media outlet and claims a Sunday circulation of 164,000.
News + Media is new company recently formed in Delaware and described its owners as a group of financial backers with experience in media. No one knew who owned it or provided the financial backing to buy the Review-Journal and several smaller sister newspapers and magazines focused mostly on Clark County and nearby Pahrump.
Several sources, including U.S. Senator Harry Reid, said Adelson was the financial backer behinds News + Media, but others also speculated the Koch brothers and other investors might be the new owners.
With the sale cloaked in secrecy, the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of News Editors, and other trade organizations criticized the new owner’s secrecy and demanded financial backers identify themselves.
When a CNN reporter covering the GOP presidential debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday asked Adelson about the newspaper’s sale, Adelson only told him that he has no interest in the Review-Journal’s new owner.
The next day, the Review-Journal reported Adelson financed the buy and had his son-in-law and Las Vegas Sands executive Philip Dumont create News + Media to facilitate the deal.
Adelson was among newspaper potential buyers who earlier this year lost out to New Media, which in March paid $102.5 million to buy the Review-Journal from its longtime owner, Stephens Media Group.
New Media said it didn’t intend to flip the Review-Journal for a profit, but the unsolicited $140 million offer from News + Media was a good deal for its shareholders.
Adelson also met with Republican presidential candidates and Donald Trump, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and others prior to Tuesday’s GOP presidential debate that was held at Adelson’s Venetian casino in Las Vegas.
Trump told reporters he and Adelson are longtime friends, but he isn’t interested in obtaining Adelson’s endorsement or campaign support.
Adelson declined to comment on his meetings with Trump, Rubio, and others.
