Digital First Media, the suburban newspaper company now owned by hedge fund Alden Global Capital, is buying the Boston Herald while cutting jobs at its Philadelphia-area publications, writes Jon Chesto for the Boston Globe and Jeff Blumenthal for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Since Alden took over four years ago, Digital First Media has cut employees at the four local unionized and non-union publications at least in half.

“It could be as much as 60 percent,” said Bill Ross, executive director of the NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia.

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NewsGuild locally represents  The Times Herald and ThePottstown Mercury in Montgomery County, and The Delaware County Times and  The Trentonian. Other Digital First Media publications in the area include The Daily Local News, The Phoenix, and The Reporter in Lansdale, as well as weeklies in Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties.

Digital First Media is also laying off employees in other parts of the country, including in California, at the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Daily News.

However, despite its extensive cost cutting, it has just purchased the Boston Herald with a bid of nearly $12 million at the bankruptcy auction for the newspaper, according to the story in the Boston Globe.

Read more about Digital First Media’s latest purchase in the Boston Globe here and the Philadelphia Business Journal here.

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