Monday, June 05, 2006

Say a Little Prayer

Very interesting (and hope laden) piece by Jay Rosen of PressThink in A Prayer for the Philly Papers, on the upcoming sale of the Inquirer/Daily News to the local group led by Brian Tierney (see The Good News and Bad News), plus an added treat of lively and insightful dialogue in the Comments by a number of journalists past and present from the papers, among others.

Contrasted with this picture of the papers' news owners & future, is another portrait -- of the leader of the pack, Brian Tierney, in Philadelphia Weekly's column, Brian Tierney Makes a Pledge. This less flattering portrayal includes the reaction of former Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano (for details, see The Good News and Bad News), who's run in with Tierney precipitated a lawsuit against the paper.

Best sign for me is the fact that Tierney will be the full time CEO of Philadelphia Holdings Co., the new owner. He is, by all accounts, a zealous advocate for his clients. One would hope that he would be no less so when he is "representing" the papers. There's still a concern that he will try to tilt the papers to the right, since he's fairly conservative politically, but again, that would be against his interests in this liberal-minded, Democratic town. One can only hope & I will.

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