Private equity is here to finish burying two woefully mismanaged Chicago classics: The Tribune and Second City. Hedge fund Alden Capital is finishing its takeover of the Chicago Tribune with a $430 million buyout of the newspapers remaining shares. Life under partial Alden ownership has already seen plenty of corporate fracking — busting up the company to extract any bits of value, regardless of long-term damage. There’s little chance that doesn’t continue, if not accelerate, under full ownership.
Because hedge funds know everything about the brand names your dad might want to check out while he’s in town and nothing about how to actually create value, Second City has met a similar fate. Private-equity firm ZMC is buying the comedy club after an early-pandemic outing of institutional racism forced a sale. The purchase price was undisclosed, but probably in the neighborhood of $50 million. If every private-equity firm sounds indistinguishable, that’s on purpose, though worth noting that this particular collection of letters was founded by the guy responsible for the business of Grand Theft Auto.
We’d like to pretend we’re too jaded to care what happens to stodgy old brands. But to a lot of people, the Tribune and Second City are Chicago. And it sucks to see them move further from the control of the reporters and comedians who make them. Let’s make sure the next generation of institutions doesn’t repeat the same institutional problems.
One company is at least trying to use private investment to reinvent what’s institutional. Ariel Investments is looking to diversify the Fortune 500 supply chain with Project Black, the first initiative from its new Ariel Alternatives private investment firm. The effort will look to scale minority-owned small and mid-sized businesses. Look if we have to live under capitalism might as well spread around the inequality.
You know, considering Foxtrot is getting $42 million to ruin the bodega. It will use the funds to open up four new “upscale convenience stores” in Chicago, plus additional spots in D.C. and Dallas.
On the side of the commoners, Berwyn-based Buona Beef is expanding and planning to hire 500 new full and part-time workers, and Wayfair is opening a fulfillment center in Romeoville with 250 jobs. Here’s to Italian beefs and cheap homegoods.
You can stand with the rabble by keeping an eye on Jewel-Osco. Its warehouse workers and drivers have authorized a strike if they can’t reach an agreement on a new contract by March 6.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Director of Digital Strategy at The Goodman Theater
Look, we’re all for a stable job in the arts during the best of times, and this is not the best of times. This job sits between a Director of Marketing and a Digital Marketing Associate, so you’re not stuck doing everything yourself, as is so often the case with digital jobs. Plus it’s nice that they’re upfront about the $60,000 salary.
Senior Brand Strategist, Food and Beverage at Edelman
We have done the research on “food culture” this pandemic. So yeah, we have some ideas.
Program Manager, Digital Content Strategy at CDW
If that Goodman job doesn’t work out, CDW is a solid backup with great benefits.
Tool of the Week
It’s good practice to compare your salary against your industry every so often, even if you’re not looking for new work (though sometimes you’ll find out you really should be looking for new work). These guides, from staffing firm Robert Half, come to us by way of a fellow hustler and come separated by industry: Creative/Marketing, Technology, Legal, Administrative, Accounting/Finance.
Inspiration of the week
“There is a difference between having power and feeling empowered.”
—Tavi Gevinson in an essay on the Britney Spears documentary that is worlds better than the (already good!) Britney Spears documentary. Like so much of the conversation around Britney, it’s not really about her at all, but about what she means in a world of people grappling with their own sexuality and repression and disempowerment.
It can feel really good to participate in your own exploitation — almost like having a choice. But it’s not agency. The actions we take within a system don’t prove the system doesn’t exist, not any more than jumping disproves gravity.
There are a lot of people on this list who are absolutely killer at their jobs. You may never doubt you can do your job better than a specific someone else, yet still doubt your ability to do the job, period. It’s not imposter syndrome or inexperience. It’s a system working exactly as it was designed, withholding the kind of power that’s permanent. That allows you to rest.
So when you find yourself feeling tired, remember that you’ve earned it. Keeping up professional confidence while lacking institutional power is a constant game of chicken. It makes everything else you accomplish that much more impressive.
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