The family of conservative casino owner Sheldon Adelson confirmed Thursday they purchased Nevada’s largest newspaper, Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The purchase was announced in an editor’s note alongside a thoroughly reported piece in Thursday’s paper, which used anonymous sources to pinpoint Adelson’s son-in-law as the leader of the $140-million purchase. (A source told the Review-Journal that Patrick Dumont handles family investments and had led Adelson’s previous attempt to purchase the paper.)
Dumont married Adelson’s wife’s daughter from a previous marriage, according to the Review-Journal. He is the senior vice president of finance and strategy of Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino and resort company Adelson founded in late 1980s.
Because the LLC that bought the paper is based in Delaware, the Review- Journal reported, the corporation is not required to publicly declare its owners.
Here’s the family’s note.
Here’s the text:
The Adelson family has called Las Vegas home for nearly 25 years. Through our business interests here we’ve helped employ tens of thousands of people and have been honored to provide support to many of this community’s important charitable and civic organizations and causes.
Today, we are proud to announce that the Adelson family has purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal through a wholly-owned fund, as both a financial investment as well as an investment in the future of the Las Vegas community.
We understand the desire of the hard-working staff at the R-J and others in the community to know the identity of the paper’s new owners, and it was always our intention to publicly announce our ownership of the R-J.
This week, with each of the Republican candidates for president and the national media descending on Las Vegas for the year’s final debate, we did not want an announcement to distract from the important role Nevada continues to play in the 2016 presidential election.
Our motivation for purchasing the R-J is simple. We believe in this community and want to help make Las Vegas an even greater place to live. We believe deeply that a strong and effective daily newspaper plays a critical role in keeping our state apprised of the important news and issues we face on a daily basis.
The management team from New Media, which is currently running the R-J, will continue to oversee the operations of the publication. The family wants a journalism product that is second-to-none and will continue to invest in the paper to achieve this goal.
On behalf of our family, we wish the entire Las Vegas Valley a safe and healthy holiday season and our best wishes for 2016.
