Marky Mark Disney Film Inspires Philly Pride

In a largely we’ve-seen-all-of this-before profile of Brian Tierney from Columbia Journalism Review, there’s a little point about Inquirer editor Bill Marimow on his return to Philadelphia. (Yeah, this has been reported before, too, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you! Ahh, such cutting edge references on this blog.)

Marimow, then at National Public Radio, said he had written to Tierney asking to be considered for the job in August after the film Invincible, about an unlikely Philadelphia football hero, had stirred his desire to return to his hometown paper. Even the prospective layoffs—he’d fought similar cuts as editor of the Baltimore Sun, and been fired as a result—didn’t dissuade him. “I knew that for these two newspapers, the Inquirer and the Daily News, to flourish,” Marimow said, “they had to be smaller.”

Yeah, it’s kinda like that scene in Invincible where Vince Papale makes the team! Only if instead of making the squad, he was cut. And the Eagles were only carrying 45 players instead of 60. And Dick Vermeil had quit over a previous head coaching job where he wouldn’t cut the players the owner wanted. And then the Eagles were renamed the Flying Pigs in honor of a 9-7 season.

Brian Tierney’s Grand Experiment [CJR]
May 4: ‘Inquirer’ Uses Font Size Usually Reserved For Terrorist Attacks To Tell Us Circulation Is Up

Breaking: Marimow New ‘Inky’ Editor?

Rumor has it that Bill Marimow, who just signed on as NPR’s ombudsman, is the new editor of the Inquirer.

Marimow is a former Inquirer reporter from 1972 - 1987. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for investigative reporting, adding it to another one he had won for distinguished public service with a co-writer in 1978. He was editor of the Baltimore Sun in the early 2000s and was managing editor of the paper for the six years before that.

Brian Tierney is meeting with the Inquirer troops at 1:30 p.m. Marimow would be replacing Amanda Bennett, it seems.

More TK, of course.

Update, 12:57 p.m.: Marimow’s appearance in building a coincidence? Half-hour until meeting? What will happen??? Developing, as they say…

Bill Marimow [NPR]