The drama continues to churn around The Aspen Times. Publications including the Atlantic Magazine and New York Times have carried features over the last week detailing declining morale, loss of staff, and self-censorship since Ogden Newspapers purchased the Aspen Times’ parent company in November 2021. The primary issue? New ownership’s directives not to publish articles about Soviet-born billionaire Vladislav Doronin, who purchased a one-acre parcel at the base of Aspen Mountain for $76 million in early March.
Doronin's team sued the Aspen Times for defamation after the paper carried references calling him a "Russian Oligarch," and his representatives repeatedly insisted he had no business ties to Russia. In fact, Doronin transferred his 1/3 stake in a Moscow-based capital group the day after suing the oldest newspaper in Aspen. The parties settled the lawsuit in June.
Now, former A.T. editor-in-chief Andrew Travers says in a lengthy dissection of the dustup in the Atlantic that Ogden leadership fired him in June for running pieces critical of Doronin, and that the paper’s staff was forced to sit on investigations into the hotel-developer’s finances for months while the lawsuit played out.
