These 3 people hold the fate of hundreds of local newspapers in their hands after a private equity and hedge fund feeding frenzy

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

• Local newspapers have been rocked by consolidation and closures, as digital advertising revenue has not been able to replace print advertisements.
• Hedge funds and private equity firms have scooped up hundreds of local news sources over the years, with three firms - Alden Global, Fortress, and Chatham Asset Management - now pulling the strings behind the biggest media moves.
• Business Insider took a look at who the people determining the future of media are, and why the people that work for them are bracing for the worst.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Heath Freeman owns a condo in New York's posh West Village in a building that also houses Ben Stiller and Jon Bon Jovi, runs the hedge fund Alden Global, and paid a record-setting sum for Christian Laettner's game-worn jersey from the famous buzzer-beater against Kentucky.

He's also feared by media conglomerates across the country.

Freeman's hedge fund owns a majority stake in Media News Group, formerly known as Digital First Media, a collection of local news sources like The Denver Post and The Mercury News. He is hungry for more.

His fund recently came to an agreement with Tribune Publishing - which includes the Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, and The Baltimore Sun, among others - to not increase its stake for six months in exchange for several board seats.

Ken Doctor, a media analyst who wrote the book "Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get", told Business Insider that he thinks Freeman's interest in USA Today publisher Gannett is what prompted executives there to seek out a deal with Fortress's New Media Investment Group.

"Alden has become a cartoon villain of the newspaper business," Doctor said. "We saw in the stunned panic of Gannett that they didn't want any part of his takeover because of his reputation."

There don't appear to be many superheroes coming to save the newspaper business, either. While some non-profit newsrooms have had successes - and national newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post have thrived recently - local papers have been reduced to joining large conglomerates to stay afloat. The result has been slashed payrolls, lost jobs, and the sales of many iconic newspaper offices, like The Chicago Tribune's Tribune Tower.

Digital media, once seen as the industry's relatively healthy alternative to failing papers, has been hit hard in recent years as well. Publications like Buzzfeed, Vice, and Huffington Post all underwent layoffs and buyouts this year. The Columbia Journalism Review estimates 3,385 journalists lost their jobs this year.

That's all to say that the future of local news, which is already in crisis according to researchers at the University of North Carolina, may come down to the whims of a few powerful financiers.