Abridged Daily News Columnists: Brian Tierney Special Edition

There’s only one column in today’s Daily News, but it’s by Publisher Brian Tierney, so let’s make fun of it for a little bit. (Post-writing editor’s note: Or maybe for a long time, like a billion words or so. Whoops.)

WHAT HAPPENED last week was like a scene from a holiday movie.

Did an angel show Brian Tierney what it would be like if he had never lived in a gimmicky, schmaltzy way?

In the face of the biggest demand for toys in years, the Philadelphia Area Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots program was experiencing its smallest contributions in memory. With a week to go in its campaign to help needy children, the toy total was less than half its usual count. And, in the most challenging economy in decades, there was little hope for improvement. Things looked bleak.

Oh. That’s not good, but I don’t really see how it’s much like Brian Tierney being visited by three ghosts and learning the true meaning of Christmas.

We started a campaign in the

I just want to point out that, currently, this is the last part of the story in regular text; everything else is in italics from this point out. I totally haven’t italicized my whole site in a while, but it happens to the best of us.

Daily News, Inquirer and Philly.com to alert our readers to this need.

A week later, 40,000 more toys came through our doors, to put the total at over 60,000. The increased cash contributions are still being tabulated.

This “Miracle on Broad Street” illustrates the extraordinary power of our newspapers - to highlight a problem, galvanize our community and make a real difference, every single day.

Let’s call a moratorium on “Miracle on [x] Street” references unless it really works from now on. This is about the third or fourth thing I’ve heard called “Miracle on Broad Street” this year (including the Phillies’ World Series win, which took place in between 10th and Darien Streets).

And, uhm, this scenario doesn’t sound much like Miracle on 34th Street. The only way this would be like a Christmas movie is if people donated Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifles. (Note: Please do not notify me of a movie called The Christmas Toy Drive or something that is about a newspaper and its heroic toy drive.)

And it’s just the most recent example of stories that have made a difference.

People are talking about our recent series on the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Postal Service, coverage of the Eagles’ quarterback controversy and minute-by-minute dispatches from the Fumo and Fort Dix Five trials on Philly.com.

How, exactly, has coverage of the (now irrelevant) Eagles’ quarterback controversy made a difference in Philadelphia? If anything I think I’d lean toward it hurting the city. That EPA story was the annual Inquirer Shameless Award Attempt, but it was good. That Southwest Philly mail processing story has been floating around for forever, and I can’t believe it’s just finally getting play now.

So, yeah, good work. Might want to mention how these stories have made a difference if that is your point, but I understand you aren’t a regular here on the op-ed page, I’ll cut you a little slack.

But some aren’t just talking about the great stories in the Daily News and Inquirer. They’re also asking a question:

Hey! Who’s the World Champion? That’s what Charlie Manuel said after the Phillies won the World Series, and it was awesome, and I’ve been saying it since then.

Are our papers going to make it?

Oh. Yeah. That’s sort of been the sad question hanging over all of American journalism these past few months/years, and the Inquirer and Daily News, especially, as they’ve laid off people again this year.

It’s no wonder.

The news about newspapers has been deeply distressing.

The Tribune Co. has filed for bankruptcy. Detroit’s daily papers are about to cut four days a week of home delivery. And we’ve had to make some painful cuts, too, to remain profitable - including selective layoffs in recent weeks.

But there’s more to the story here in Philadelphia. And given all the bad news and anxious questions, it’s time to tell some of the rest of the story.

Okay, before we get into the rah-rah about the local papers from Tierney, let’s step back and think what we know about journalists: They’re grumpy. They’re notoriously bitter when colleagues get laid off. They hate their bosses. They don’t like it when their boss gushes over toy drives when layoffs have taken place. I guess. I think the same as I do with this license plate: Eh. But people eat that up — read that posts’s comments — and really care about things like that, so you have to take it into consideration.

What makes our Philadelphia newspapers different? First and foremost, we’ve invested heavily in the quality of our journalism. And we’ve been rewarded for it with faithful readership, steady growth and profitability.

Sure, we all love Gonzo and his floating head and his emails with Phil Sheridan and Bob Ford.

About 1.2 million people physically pick up and read our papers every day. That audience compares favorably to those of many national news outlets, and it dwarfs the reach of other local media. And 30 percent of our readers are young people, between 18 and 34.

Yes, you own the two main newspapers. You’re supposed to be the biggest media in town. This is like Wal-Mart writing a Wall Street Journal op-ed about how much bigger they are than Target. (Of course that op-ed would be in the Journal!)

Our advertisers tell us that nothing moves their products like an ad in our newspapers.

Sure. Once again, you own the 2 daily newspapers. How is this different than the Tribune Co. again? That was the premise of this part of the column — how the Philadelphia newspapers are different than newspapers in the rest of the country — if I remember correctly. I am sure they are different in certain ways. That advertisers still trust the reliability of newspaper ads is not one of those ways.

Beyond the newspapers, Philly.com’s traffic has exploded to 50 million page views a month and more than 2.3 million unique visitors. That’s the direct result of the investment we’ve made in good journalism, technology and creativity.

I did a quick browse of this category in my archives and, after thinking through the issues thoroughly, yes, I agree. Philly.com’s recent traffic increases are due to good journalism and not people wanting to post not-so-subtly racist rants in the comments.

Our original news reporting sets the table for the entire region’s news output, much of which derives from the work we do. No other news medium - television, radio or Web - can compare to the daily coverage produced by our approximately 400 journalists.

XEROX TO DITTO MACHINES: WE HAVE A LARGER MARKET SHARE THAN YOU.

And you never thought I’d get a ditto reference on Philadelphia Will Do.

(Side note: Yeah, I saw the number, too. Four hundred journalists. It sounds high, I know, but I do think it’s about right. Check out the Inquirer staff page and the Daily News page. Man, how many editorial people did the papers have before, 3,000 or so?)

More than 3,000 men and women sell the ads, run the presses, drive the trucks and make the papers possible.

This is a tremendous responsibility, and we take it seriously. Without the Daily News and Inquirer, who would be exposing corruption and incompetence, celebrating athletic and artistic accomplishments, chronicling business successes and failures, and covering our city and region so thoroughly?

In other cities, robots sell the ads, magic runs the presses, the trucks are automated and the papers are made possible by the letter ‘K.’ And, yes, your papers are the major news source for the city. It’s pretty awesome for you that you bought them, but you should be over that by now. Do you think Mark Cuban still runs around his bedroom going, “I OWN AN NBA TEAM I OWN AN NBA TEAM I OWN AN NBA TEAM THANK YOU YAHOO!” Probably. Which is why you certainly should not.

Surprisingly, the citizens of Philadelphia have not turned to Philadelphia Will Do as their daily news source, maybe because they’re like, “Why does he write about new money designs every time they come out? Weird.”

Both papers are important. The Daily News covers the city intensely, and has expanded coverage of New Jersey and Delaware County. The Inquirer has a broad reach of the region.

This paper is opinionated, and isn’t afraid to take sides and advocate for what is right.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer only covers Payne/Goodrich-Kirtland Park. The Kansas City Star only covers the Chiefs and nothing else. The Los Angeles Times is not opinionated. The Boston Herald is notorious for being afraid to take sides. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has never once advocated for what is right.

And Daily News readers are just as passionate and opinionated as their paper. That not only makes for a special relationship that is unique among big-city papers, but it adds a richness to our public conversation.

This is going to sound like a slight or something, but I really mean it as high praise: The main difference between the Daily News and other American daily tabloids is that the DN looks fantastic. The paper was always okay looking, but the 2001 redesign really made it a sharp-looking paper. (It kind of looks like a European tabloid, I guess.)

The New York Daily News and the New York Post are two of the ugliest-looking papers in the world. Our local tabloid isn’t as crammed (but doesn’t overuse white space), has clean font headlines and an imitated logo.

Also, apparently, readers of other city’s tabloids are not opinionated.

The Daily News fights for its readers. People like Betsy Betancourt, who faced a family tragedy alone until Ronnie Polaneczky wrote a column about her that prompted scores of readers to come to the rescue. Columnist Jill Porter also has made a difference with her focus on the little guy and on big issues, and her columns spark huge response.

THE DAILY NEWS GOT THE CRACK CANDY OFF THE CITY STREETS.

In November, city voters approved a charter change to merge our parks and recreation, to fix problems first brought to light by the editorial board.

Hey! It took a while, but here is an example of the Daily News making a difference (making positive change, even!). Whew.

Our journalists know what matters to your community because it’s their community, too. They’re driven by what compels you to pick up our paper every day: the need to understand this region and its people.

Oh, so that’s why a bunch of the staff lives in the suburbs. It all makes sense! (This is supposed to be a Philadelphia self-loathing joke, not a “oh no newspapermen live in the suburbs” joke. Sorry if it got misconstrued, I’m 1800 words — including C&P’s — in need to finish this now.)

Much the same can be said of the homegrown group of investors who returned this paper to local control 2 1/2 years ago, proudly making the Daily News and Inquirer together the largest locally owned papers in America.

We’re your neighbors. We grew up in towns like Upper Darby, Elkins Park, Springfield, Flourtown and Deptford Township. We went to school here. We care deeply about Philadelphia, its suburbs and South Jersey.

Hey, maybe I should have made that a staff-of-suburbanites joke. I really love this second graf here; it’s like a rock star namedropping city neighborhoods.

We’re not trying to create the next multinational media behemoth. We’re rebuilding the kind of world-class hometown papers that used to define cities like Philadelphia.

Big challenges lie ahead, and a slowing economy makes it undeniably tougher. But the Daily News has been around for 83 years; the Inquirer for 180. We’re committed to making certain that they’re both around for a long time to come.

At 51, I’ve been in other businesses that were just as tough as this one. But none of them seemed quite as important. And that’s why I’m proud of this great, historic endeavor. Our local owners know that it’s more than a business; it’s a public trust.

Nothing says “public trust” like “flying pigs.” But you all already knew that.