Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer wants to know how many journalists a hedge fund intends to lay off if it manages to take control of the publisher of USA TODAY.

The attempt by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital to take control of the newspaper publisher Gannett has the attention of the New York senator, who is expressing concern about the ability of the public to have access to local news.

Schumer’s interest should be no surprise, since the company, which also publishes USA TODAY and newspapers across the country, owns a number of upstate New York papers, as well.

“I was troubled to learn that MNG announced an unsolicited bid to acquire Gannett, which — in addition to USA Today — publishes several important newspapers serving smaller to mid-size cities in my state of New York: the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, the Elmira Star-Gazette, The Ithaca Journal and the Press & Sun-Bulletin in the Southern Tier, and The Journal News and The Poughkeepsie Journal in the Hudson Valley,” the New York Democrat wrote in a new letter to Heath Freeman, the president of Alden Global Capital.

The hedge fund, through its publishing arm Digital First Media, had made an unsolicited bid to acquire Gannett, which Gannett rejected. After that, the Digital First Media group, otherwise known as, MNG Enterprises, launched a proxy fight to get control of seats on the board.