Baltimore Sun Sold To Sinclair Chairman David Smith

BALTIMORE, MD — The Baltimore Sun newspaper has been purchased by David D. Smith, the executive chairman of television station owner Sinclair Inc., the publication reported Monday night.

Smith, an active contributor to conservative causes, bought Baltimore Sun Media from the investment firm Alden Global Capital. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Baltimore Sun Media, winner of 16 Pulitzer Prizes, employs more than 150 people and publishes seven other publications aside from the Sun, with more than 230,000 paid subscribers total. The largest newspaper in Maryland, the Sun was founded in 1837 and was locally owned by the Abell family until the 1980s.

"I’m in the news business because I believe … we have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest," Smith said in the Sun's story. "I think the paper can be hugely profitable and successful and serve a greater public interest over time."

He continued, "We have one job, to tell the truth, present the facts, period. That’s our job."

A day after the sale's announcement, Smith held a meeting with Sun staff where he insulted the quality of their journalism, seemed to pit reporters against each other, and told employees he had not read newspapers for decades, according to a Baltimore Banner report.

The meeting lasted about three hours and was filled with tense exchanges, according to the Banner's report. At one point, Smith asked reporters to rank who was the best in the newsroom and was noncommittal about the future of the Sun's print edition and retention of current staff.

Smith also told staff the newspaper should mimic Fox45, a local Sinclair-owned news station, the Banner reported.

Employees who spoke with the Banner called the meeting "bleak" and "very bad."

Smith will remain chairman of Sinclair, which owns or operates 185 local television stations across the country and is known for infusing a right-wing sensibility into its news products. In 2018, the company ordered its anchors across the country to read a statement that largely echoed what former President Donald Trump had said about “fake news.”

The company was founded as the Chesapeake Television Corp. by Smith’s father, Julian Sinclair Smith, and changed its name to Sinclair in the 1980s as it began expanding nationally.

Smith made clear that he used his personal resources to purchase The Sun, which will not fall under the Sinclair umbrella. Smith told the newspaper he had one partner: Armstrong Williams, a commentator who hosts a show on Sinclair’s affiliates.

The Sinclair-owned Fox station in Baltimore frequently airs coverage blaming the city’s Democratic mayor, Brandon Scott, for gun violence and failing schools. And Smith has become a prominent player in local politics. In 2022, he helped finance an effort to impose term limits for some Baltimore officials.

Tax records show Smith’s foundation has donated to the conservative group Project Veritas, which is best known for making hidden camera stings on media and liberal figures.

Smith has exhibited a pointed attitude toward the business he’s getting into. In 2018, Smith told New York magazine that he dislikes and fundamentally distrusts print media. He said the industry is so left-wing as to be meaningless and that accounts for its decline. “Just no credibility,” he told writer Olivia Nuzzi in 2018.

When asked about those comments by a Sun staffer Tuesday, Smith said he largely stood by them, according to people in attendance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.