Which corporations own the largest national newspaper chains in the United States as of 2025?
Executive summary
As of 2025, ownership of the largest U.S. newspaper chains is concentrated in a small number of corporate owners: publicly traded Gannett remains the single largest chain by number of papers and circulation via the USA Today Network [1] [2], hedge-fund–backed Alden Global Capital (through MediaNews/News Media Group) ranks among the largest owners of dailies [1] [3], and established regional chains such as Lee Enterprises and Adams Publishing Group hold sizeable portfolios as part of a cohort that controls a large share of remaining dailies [1] news-deserts-and-ghost-newspapers-will-local-news-survive/the-news-landscape-in-2020-transformed-and-diminished/the-new-media-giants/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[4] [5].
1. Gannett: the largest publicly traded newspaper owner and the USA Today Network
Gannett is identified in multiple industry tallies as the largest U.S. newspaper owner in the mid-2020s, owning roughly 310 papers by 2024 and operating the USA Today Network, which makes it the biggest local-to-national publishing organization in the country according to company and industry reporting [1] [2]. Northwestern’s Local News Initiative and related analyses note that Gannett continued to buy, sell and reorganize titles in 2024–2025 (for example selling the Austin American-Statesman to Hearst), but overall the company still controls the largest single portfolio of papers and a large share of daily circulation [6] [2].
2. Alden Global Capital / MediaNews Group (News Media Group): the hedge fund aggregator
Alden Global Capital, operating through its MediaNews/News Media Group umbrella, is repeatedly listed among the largest owners of U.S. dailies and local papers; industry trackers and Statista explicitly count Alden’s News Media Group as one of the top owners by number of papers and dailies [1] [3]. Reporting and watchdog research note Alden’s reputation as an aggressive consolidator driven by cost-cutting financial management rather than a civic-journalism mission, an implicit agenda widely debated in journalism studies and the news-deserts literature [4].
3. Lee Enterprises and other legacy chains: geography and concentration
Lee Enterprises is named consistently as one of the largest remaining legacy newspaper chains with a substantial number of dailies and regional reach; it appears in the Statista rankings of leading owners and in broader analyses of the top seven or so owners that together control a majority of major dailies [1] [3]. Industry research underscores that while a few public chains dominate, regional chains and family-owned groups still populate the top tier, contributing to a concentrated but not wholly monopolistic ownership map [4] [7].
4. Adams Publishing, Tribune/MediaNews, Hearst and a shifting top ten
Beyond the top three, several corporate owners—Adams Publishing Group, Tribune/MediaNews configurations, Hearst, and newer buyers such as CherryRoad or Paxton in pockets—figure among the largest ten owners; Northwestern’s 2025 state-of-local-news report and regional press analyses list these groups as controlling a substantial portion of the country’s remaining dailies and papers [5] [6] [8]. The landscape remains dynamic: chains offload and acquire titles frequently, and the top-ten list shifts as companies sell or buy properties [6] [8].
5. What the numbers mean: concentration, circulation and contested agendas
Industry studies show that roughly a quarter of U.S. newspapers are controlled by the ten largest companies and that 60% of dailies fall under those same owners, a concentration that has intensified as titles closed or changed hands; critics warn that private-equity and hedge-fund ownership often prioritizes short-term returns, while defenders say consolidation can preserve struggling papers through scale [6] [4]. Independent trackers and historical indexes further document that seven to 25 firms have dominated daily ownership for years, but precise rankings depend on whether one measures by number of papers, daily circulation, or revenue—metrics that produce slightly different lists [3] [9].