A Q&A On The Philly Papers’ Sale

If you haven’t checked out the Philly.com today, you should. Why, there’s a story even bigger than Barbaro: The sale of the Inquirer and Daily News (and related businesses, including the Northeast Times!).

Why, you just have to click once to see a full list of stories about the big news!

Jesus, even I don’t want to read all of those stories. But, as a service to you, the reader, I did read all 58 stories and have compiled a Q&A about the sale of the papers after the jump.

Q: So I’m just a regular guy who reads one paper or the other almost every day. Will this have any effect on me?
A: Yes and no. Yes, the Daily News isn’t going to close now, it seems, so you’ll at least have a tabloid source for all your ass and ball needs. There’s a chance the news coverage could get better, since maybe the papers will be able to hire new reporters, editors, etc. (Although the Daily News will still probably average 40 billion corrections a week.)

But, naah, things’ll be pretty much the same, I suppose.

Q: Wait, but isn’t the union’s contract up in August?
A: Yeah. New PNI head Brian Tierney talked with union leaders yesterday and said he wants to work on a new long-term deal.

Q: Wouldn’t it be funny if the new local guy bought the paper and then the paper’s unionized workers went on strike?
A: Yes. Yes it would.

Q: A consortium of business owners joined up to buy the paper, but the main guy is Brian Tierney. Some people are kind of weirded out by him owning the papers. Why?
A: Well, back in 1992 then-Cardinal Bevilacqua praised Tierney for keeping Ralph Cipriano’s stories critical of the Archdiocese out of the paper. But it’s probably simpler than that: He’s a PR guy. Newspapers writers put PR people somewhere between slugs and tomatoes on their chain of people to respect.

Q: Is that it?
A: Well, also, he’s a Republican.

Q: So? Wasn’t the guy who owned the company pairing with the Newspaper Guild, Ron Burkle, a big Democrat? I mean, he pals around with Bill Clinton! Would it be a big story that Burkle is a Democrat if that bid had won?
A: That’s a good question.

Q: I see how this works. Anyway, won’t everyone be watching Tierney et al to make sure they don’t interfere with newsroom coverage, especialy now that they’ve pledged to stay out of it?
A: Of course. And hopefully it will work. I think the real question isn’t what it’s going to be like this year or next year, but what the paper’s situation is like in, say, 2010.

Q: Hmm. That wasn’t a joke and was kind of a good point. What was up with that?
A: This thing isn’t turning out as funny as I hoped and I wanted to actually throw in some useful information.

Q: Fair enough. Anyway, Bruce Toll, of Toll Brothers, is also one of the investors. Doesn’t Jeff Thomason work for Toll Brothers? Wasn’t it awesome when he came back to play in the Super Bowl after Chad Lewis got hurt?
A: Yeah, that was great. Too bad they lost.

Q: I know, that sucked, right?
A: Totally.

Q: The papers sold for $562 million. What do you think the purchase price of the papers would have been if the Daily News hadn’t put a story you wrote on the cover in 2003?
A: Approximately $2 billion.

Q: Among the properties of Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. is “Communities, which is produced bimonthly,” according to the Inquirer. Does that mean twice a month or every other month?
A: This isn’t a grammar Q&A!

Q: You dont’ know the answer, do you?
A: No.

Q: I see. Finally, who’s the “sexually overactive male reporter” who an editor had to save from “from a cuckolded husband’s murderous rage”?
A: Dunno. It was in, like, the 1950s or something. Still, it’s kinda funny.

Q: Hey, how come you don’t have your photo up in the corner of the blog like the other PW blogs do?
A: The other bloggers are much more attractive than I am.

Q: Hmm. Want to get lunch?
A: Sure.