Adelson officially revealed as owner of Las Vegas Review

Adelson – one of the richest men in the world and a passionate supporter of Israel – is routinely courted by office-seekers from the White House down, who make the pilgrimage to his business headquarters on the Las Vegas Strip to seek his blessing.

The Review-Journal released Wednesday night via Twitter and on its website that billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson purchased the newspaper.

The more-than-century-old paper and its sibling publications were purchased for $140 million in cash last week from New Media Investment Group Inc.by News + Media Capital Group LLC, a Delaware-based firm whose backers weren’t disclosed.

That is one scoop that Journal-Review reporters probably won’t want to brag about to their new boss, a major GOP power broker and donor.

“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”, the family statement said. Wednesday afternoon, 8 News NOW broke the news that Fortune.com was reporting that Adelson was the owner.

According to the Review-Journal, the deal was put together by Sands SVP of finance and strategy Patrick Dumont, Adelsons son-in-law.

News + Media’s manager, Michael Schroeder, said Thursday that he couldn’t immediately provide more information. Media watchers and reporters around the country condemned the new owner’s anonymity, including the editorial board at the Review-Journal. New Media paid $102.5 million in March to buy it from Stephens Media. “Might the newspaper cover or ignore a story, or might this editorial page support a position, person or plan, because it directly benefits The Review-Journal’s owners?”

Speculation had been focusing on Adelson with pundits theorizing that the deep-pocketed GOP kingmaker could be planning to use the paper to sway the presidential race.

In its statement, the Adelson family said it purchased the 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”. The Review-Journal has a joint operating agreement with The Las Vegas Sun that requires regular meetings between the owners of the two papers, at which the veil will presumably be lifted. The Review-Journal’s publisher, Jason Taylor, also declined to identify the buyer, the paper reported.

Aside from being involved in presidential politics, Adelson is also waging a campaign against legalization of online gaming, which threaten his casino empire.

Andrew Seaman, the Society of Professional Journalists’ ethics committee chairman, wondered why the new owners made a decision to go through such great pains to hide their identity.

The Adelsons announced that they’re the new owners Thursday, a week after the publication was sold for a second time this year at a markup.