A Las Vegas newspaper editor quit after a GOP billionaire mega-donor bought the publication

Mike Hengel, the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, told staff on Tuesday that he would be stepping down from his position after accepting a "voluntary buyout."

The news will be announced in a front-page editorial by the Adelson family in Wednesday's edition, according to a report by CNN's Brian Stelter.

Hengel's resignation comes after a tumultuous month at the paper. On December 10, the Review-Journal was purchased by a buyer undisclosed to both Review-Journal staffers and the public.

After an investigation by the paper, the buyer was revealed to be casino magnate and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.

According to Politico, Hengel told staff at Tuesday's announcement that he didn't think he would last long under Adelson's ownership. He reportedly told employees that Adelson's ownership "had the makings of an adversarial relationship." Despite that sentiment, Hengel noted that he was not being pushed out.

"I think it would have been a long shot to think that I would have been able to continue on for very long in this role," Hengel said, according to Politico.

 

According to Review-Journal reporter Neal Morton, here is the gist of the Adelson family's editorial in Wednesday's paper:

 

 

 

 On the day of the paper's sale, Michael Schroeder, the manager of News + Media Capital, the company formed to purchase the newspaper, told staff to not worry about who the new owners were and "to focus on their jobs."

The paper took that as a challenge to discover who the new owner was, believing that transparency was paramount to the newspaper's mission. A week later, the Review-Journal's James DeHaven, Howard Stutz, and Jennifer Robison broke the story of Adelson's $140 million purchase of the newspaper through Adelson's son-in-law, Patrick Dumont.

In the days following, Hengel and the rest of the staff grappled with what Adelson's ownership meant for the future of the paper and the vast number of conflicts of interest it entailed.

That conflict may have something to do with Hengel's departure. An editorial published on December 19 vows to "fight to keep [readers'] trust every day."

"We'll do everything we can to to preserve our newsroom's independence - and hold the Adelsons to their word," the editorial reads.

On December 20, the paper published a detailed comparison of the editorial board's positions on numerous issues with Adelson's. It noted how big of a change the board's positions would be if it adopted Adelson's espoused views on a range from "little to none" to "complete reversal."

In addition, Hengel was at work on a "standard disclaimer" that the paper was resolved to use for any and all stories that might be conflicts because of Adelson's wide-reaching business interests, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.

The percieved conflict of interest between the Review-Journal and Adelson may have started in the months leading up to his purchase of the paper. As the Columbia Journalism Review lays out, several Review-Journal reporters received an unusual assignment from corporate headquarters in November to monitor three local judges:

The reporters wound up amassing 15,000 words, which they uploaded to a drive, where, as far as anyone at the paper knows, they remain unread to this day, according to Hengel.

Then, in late November, a strange story appeared in a small Connecticut daily with connections to the corporate shell company used by the Adelsons for the R-J purchase. A spotty analysis of business courts around the country, attributed to a freelance writer no one has been able to track down, it included lengthy, critical observations about one of the Las Vegas judges the R-J had been keeping tabs on-who happens to be presiding over a major case involving Adelson. 

How much any of these things had to do with Hengel's decision to step down is pure speculation, but they provide interesting context to this entire story.

According to CNN, multiple staffers at the newspaper have expressed fear for their jobs with a new owner in charge. When Stelter talked about staffers' sentiments, Schroeder responded, "They should not be fearful for their jobs."