The first meeting between the conservative billionaire who just purchased the Baltimore Sun and the newsroom didn't go as bad as it could have, but it didn't go well.

In a three-hour meeting last Tuesday, David Smith, the owner of Sinclair Media Group, told employees that he'd read the paper four times in the last few months and told them they'd have to up their game.

In partnership with conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, Smith bought the venerable Sun for "nine figures." 

The goal is simple. Deliver fair, balanced news to our readers.

I encourage you all to subscribe, big things are coming.https://t.co/Jn9moRzveQ https://t.co/RwQFGNBuTV pic.twitter.com/iXXZ0hc9gw

— Armstrong Williams 🇺🇸 (@Arightside) January 16, 2024

MORE ON THE SUN PURCHASE: The Lie-Able Sources Podcast: The Media Cannot Be Honest About the Dire Condition of Their Industry

Along with the Sun, he bought a network of community newspapers. Smith's corporation operates over 200 television stations. He's a major donor to conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty and Project Veritas (back before it imploded); he has deep roots in Baltimore and is influential in Baltimore politics. He's also not a fan of print journalism.

The print media is so left wing as to be meaningless dribble which accounts for why the industry is and will fade away. Just no credibility.

[Full disclosure: I have my own beef with the Baltimore Sun. Many moons ago, I founded a Maryland politics blog named RedMaryland (original blogspot and archived). The focus was strictly on local politics, and we steered clear of as many national issues as we could. For one reason, that space was already taken, and for the second, it is easier to build coalitions around local stuff and introduce people to conservative principles if you aren't carrying the baggage of what the GOP in Congress...or the White House...is doing. Two of my colleagues convinced the Baltimore Sun that a conservative voice was needed, and we got a blog space there, plus a weekly column. Media Matters targeted us for merely existing, and eventually, the Sun folded like a cheap suit. So I'm hardly a disinterested observer.]

According to accounts of the meeting published in the Baltimore Banner, whose leftist founder lost a bid to buy the Sun, these are some of the highlights.

The in-person meeting ran nearly three hours and was full of tense exchanges, people at the meeting said. Smith was noncommittal about both the long-term continuation of a print edition and retention of current staff.

Smith seemed to try and pit reporters against each other, asking them to rank who was the best in the newsroom. Several times throughout the meeting, he said he has “no idea what you do.”

Asked about people’s job security, Smith said everyone “has a job today” and said he would not make wholesale changes until he better understood the operation.

...

Reporters repeatedly pressed Smith for answers about whether they would continue public service journalism that didn’t necessarily translate to page views or subscriptions. Smith maintained he was focused on money.

Clad in a suit, Smith spoke glowingly of Fox45, which is known for segments like “City in Crisis.” The news station, Sinclair’s flagship, regularly conducts unscientific online polls — with results that are likely not representative of the region — to gauge viewer interest.

People in failing, if not moribund, businesses are rarely happy when someone shakes things up. The Sun is no different.

“I think it will mean disaster,” John E. McIntyre, an editor at The Sun for 34 years, said of Mr. Smith’s ownership. Mr. McIntyre took a buyout in 2021 and now does occasional freelance work for the new crosstown rival, The Baltimore Banner.

“What I expect is that he will make good on what he said, to turn The Baltimore Sun into the same thing that his Fox45 TV station is: a megaphone for right-wing disinformation and contempt for the city of Baltimore,” Mr. McIntyre added.

...

The Baltimore Sun Guild, which represents journalists at the paper, said in a statement after the staff meeting: “The editorial direction that he described — focused on clicks rather than journalistic value — concerned many of our members, as did his attitude toward vulnerable communities in the city that we love.”

Imagine that. Being forced to write about stuff people want to read about rather than getting paid a damned good salary to engage in what amounts to public onanism.

The newspaper industry is in a crisis of its own making. It has, as Smith said, been so reflexively left-wing that most people don't read it, and to which even fewer subscribe. Rather than covering important subjects in a passably objective manner, print journalism is a mishmash of virtue signaling and Karen-ing the readers for wrongthink. The Sun will either survive or it won't. The outcome will not be David Smith's decision. The newsroom and management need to have the maturity to see that no one is buying the crap they've been selling and resolve to change. If they won't, then good riddance.