Blogicized: Burkle-o’s

• The real thing that possible new Daily News/Inquirer headman — well, way up the chain of command — Ron Burkle loves? His buddy P. Diddy. It really is all about the Benjamins. (Rimshot.) [Philebrity]

• Lower Merion — original home of Kobe Bryant, Dan Gross, &c. — is now subsidizing housing for families. Families who make up to $76,000 a year. Geeze, I can’t believe they’re finally letting in the upper middle-classers. [I've Made A Huge Tiny Mistake]

• Gavin Floyd — who shares a birthday, day and year, with yours truly (but he makes a little more money than I do) — has been flat-out sucking recently. What’re the Phillies to do? [Phillyist]

• The most confusing political quote of the year so far: “I like to say that over 25 years I probably showed up one Saturday night and scrubbed your back when you were getting a bath.” Uhh, Mike O’Brien? Stay out of my house. [Welcome to Phillyville]

Canadians, Yucaipas And Robot Cars, Oh My!

As the year continues, we’re getting closer to having a new owner for the Inquirer and Daily News — although no one really knows who’s in the lead to buy those papers, the rest of the PNI assets and the other papers McClatchey will sell after acquiring them from Knight Ridder.

At the charge of all this (and doing a fine job) is Inquirer biz reporter Joseph DiStefano, who reported today that the Yucaipa/Newspaper Guild bid brought in some Wall Street backing if the deal were to go through. He also reported yesterday that, later this week, a group of Canadian newspaper investors will visit the two papers’ offices at 400 N. Broad Street.

Pardon the pun, but: Canada, eh? Not bad. I’m not sure if it’d be good for the paper — though it would certainly be nice for the Flyers beat guys — but perhaps they could bring beavers or cold air masses or socialized health care. (Actually, the union’s plan might as well be socialized health care. I long for a $5 co-pay.)

Canadians aside, PR Week recently asked DiStefano about what it’s like to cover your own company’s sale:

It is a little bit weird covering your own company when your own union is a player in trying to organize one of the several groups that’s trying to buy the paper. That adds another level of weirdness onto it. But it’s a lot of fun. I guess I’m the kind of person that, if I’ve got to go somewhere and it’s a long trip, I’d rather be driving the car than [being] a passenger. You don’t get there any sooner, but you have the illusion of control.

No control when you’re the driver, hmm? DiStefano must have one of them robot cars. Those guys get all the perks over there.

Interview: Joseph DiStefano [PR Week]
Yucaipa brings Wall Street support for Inquirer-Daily News bid [Inky]
Canadian investors join Philly paper chase [Inky]

‘Inky’ & ‘Daily News’ To Be Bought, Change Colors To Green & Yellow

From Editor & Publisher — who, really, do a great job at covering this kind of stuff — comes the news on the future owners of the Inquirer and Daily News:

A former high-powered Philadelphia advertising executive has received commitments “well in excess of $100 million” to buy The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News in an ownership structure similar to the community-owned Green Bay Packers pro football team, he told E&P Wednesday.

Brian Tierney said he has lined up 20 “super-successful” Philadelphia businesspeople in an investment group ready to partner with others, including the Newspaper Guild, to buy the papers. The Inquirer and the tabloid Daily News were sold Monday by Knight Ridder to The McClatchy Co., which immediately announced they and 10 other papers were for sale.

In a telephone interview, Tierney said the group was committed to long-term ownership. “We’re looking at this as partly a good economic investment, and partly as good community involvement,” he said. “It would be a sort of Green Bay Packers kind of ownership.”

Tierney then said he’d be hiring a gunslinging CEO who would be hailed for playing the business world like a kid, yet throw four interceptions and cost his company the game.

Philly Locals Want Green Bay Packers-Style Ownership For 2 Papers [E&P]
Brett Favre [Packers.com]
Thanks Philly Edge

Barricade the windows!

Somewhat lost in the hubub over the announcement of Knight Ridder’s sale earlier this week is the money to be made by the man who started it all: Bruce Sherman.

Sherman, you see, started this whole sell-Knight Ridder crazy when the company’s largest shareholder said the company was underperforming and urging the board to sell itself. Sherman is the CEO of Legg Mason’s Private Capital Management LP. And, he did this only a few months after Sherman’s company became the majority stockholder.

I don’t quite understand how that works, but I do understand that it’s funny when it doesn’t quite work out:

On Monday, Sherman apparently got his wish when McClatchy announced it would buy Knight Ridder, the nation’s second-largest newspaper company and owner of the Mercury News.

But the price — $67.25 a share in the $4.5 billion deal — is well below historic premiums paid for newspapers. And it means that for all his trouble, Sherman — who paid an average of $65 a share for his stock — will barely break even on his Knight Ridder investment.

Even that modest victory is not assured because Sherman and other shareholders will be paid with a mix of cash and McClatchy stock, which has fallen 3.8 percent since the deal was announced. In addition, Sherman has seen his sizable McClatchy holdings lose $55.6 million in value since the beginning of the year when the company emerged as a bidder for Knight Ridder…. interest turned out to be tepid, with only two bids ultimately submitted. And the price paid by McClatchy was 10.4 EBITDA — what Merrill Lynch’s Fine termed “well below historical… multiples.”

There was an article a while back that said Sherman was trying to unload the stock in order to meet certain growth targets by Aug. 1, 2006. With that selling price, Sherman better get off his gold-plated toilet (note: he may not have a gold-plated toilet) and get to work.

KR Sale: Mixed result for investor [San Jose Mercury-News]