James Wright, a deputy editor at the paper, who has been editing articles about the sale and the new ownership, said it was unclear who was pulling the strings in the newsroom. “It’s a mess — it’s a convoluted mess,” he said. “We don’t really know in some cases who’s in charge of what.”

He said articles about the paper and the new owners were being reviewed, and sometimes altered, but added, “we’re not sure who is doing the vetting.”

Trying to allay potential concerns among readers, the Adelson family has put out two statements saying it was committed to investing in the newspaper. In a statement that ran on the front page on Wednesday, the family pledged to “publish a newspaper that is fair, unbiased and accurate.”

“We regard ourselves as stewards of this essential community institution,” the statement said, “and we promise that The Review-Journal will serve the people of Las Vegas for many years to come.”

Whether Mr. Adelson will ultimately try to shape the paper’s coverage remains to be seen. But in the weeks since he has owned the paper, reporters said, several articles about the paper have been heavily reviewed and edited to remove quotes that could be viewed as unfavorable to the new owners.

An article about Mr. Hengel’s resignation was trimmed before it was published from about 20 paragraphs to three and stripped of nearly all of Mr. Hengel’s comments, according to people familiar with the article. The article ran on Wednesday inside the paper. Similarly, an initial article on the paper’s website about the sale was edited after it was published to remove references to the buyer’s unknown identity.

Mr. Hengel said he was approached about taking a buyout offer on Dec. 11 — the day after the paper was sold — after he had argued with Jason Taylor, The Review-Journal’s publisher, about the changes to the initial article on the sale. The buyout offer came on Tuesday around 4 p.m., shortly before he addressed the newsroom. The statement from the new owners that said Mr. Hengel had “accepted a voluntary buyout offer” appears to have been written before he, in fact, accepted it.