Last Sunday, Brian Tierney made national headlines when he filed Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C. - owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com - for bankruptcy.
Just five days later, Tierney - CEO and founder of PMH and 1979 Penn alumnus - visited Leadership Hall for the Fox Leadership Program's "Leadership Lunch" series. Inevitably, the conversation focused less on entrepreneurship and more on the precarious future of Philadelphia newspapers.
"Nothing is going to stop," Tierney said, addressing concerns that editorial content will change or at-home delivery will stop, a la The Detroit Free Press. Tierney emphasized that the Chapter 11 filing affects financial reorganization, not content.
"We're trying to restructure the debt - put in more equity, potentially, and negotiate something that way," he said.
Later, though, he admitted that "The Inquirer, either way, will survive. The question is will The Daily News survive."
This is a timely question for a city with two major newspapers, given that Friday marked the end of The Rocky Mountain News, leaving Denver with only one newspaper.
Tierney maintained that while the economic situation for The Inquirer and its sister paper is less than favorable, newspapers are still relevant to our society - and more popular than ever.
"The irony is, [the audience] is more than it was 15 years ago," Tierney said, noting that Philly.com's individual page views are up to 60 million per month from 19 million when he bought the papers three years ago. The problem, he said, is that "we can't monetize the online content."
A secondary problem that is not as well publicized as the dominance of free online content is the actual cost of the paper: When adjusted for inflation, The Inquirer should be selling for $2.47, not $0.75.
Tierney noted that PMH is saving money where it should be saved in an attempt to compensate for this lack of revenue. For instance, putting the comic section inside the TV magazine section saves $500,000 a year, and operating two printing presses instead of three also helps to cut costs.
Ultimately, Tierney emphasized that he is doing everything he can to preserve the journalism of the paper, because that is the only reason he is in the business.
"We're in a fight of our lives right now," he said. "The alternative is to say it can't be done and we die, but I won't accept that."
