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Jul
2
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Yes, earlier today we all learned two Inquirer editors tried to have sex, but failed. But there’s more! As also reported today, the Inquirer will soon eliminate its Image and Neighbors sections.
Here’s the memo from Inky ME Sandra Long:
Hello everyone,
I want to let you know of several significant changes that will take place in the next few weeks.
The Inquirer will publish the last edition of the Neighbors sections on Sunday, July 27. We began publishing Neighbors in 1982 following the close of The Bulletin as a way to capture more suburban readership. We started with Horsham Neighbors and continued to expand through the 1980s.
At its peak, Neighbors covered suburban Pennsylvania and South Jersey in microcosmic detail, chronicling events from weekly planning and zoning meetings to wrestling meets, hockey meets and school lunch menus.
We will also combine the Sunday Arts and Entertainment and the Image section on beginning August 3. The last Image section will publish July 27. We began publishing Image when the Inquirer Magazine folded in July 2003.
Details will follow on how we will move some of the content to other sections from Neighbors and Image.
The decision to close the Neighbors sections and Image was made as the company does everything possible to control expenses against the background of a recession in the businesses that advertise in our newspapers and on our website.
In addition, we are looking at ways to reduce the number of pages in the Comics section.
If you have questions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Sandra
Sandra D. Long
Managing Editor
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Not big enough of a shakeup for you? Fine: Management is considering combining the Inquirer and Daily News photo and copy desks, sources report.
Still not enough? Okay, get this: The Inquirer only has two comics pages. (I guess she could be writing about Sunday’s comics section.) If I can’t get my Dennis the Menace and Ziggy fix there, where the hell will I get it?
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dmac | 7:39 PM | 2 Comments
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Mar
9
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You might remember Ellen Green-Ceisler from such posts last week as this one. She’s a lawyer who is running for a judgeship this year, but she also monitored the police department as head of the city’s Integrity and Accountability Office and prepared a report on discipline in the Philadelphia School District released earlier this month.
But whoops! Gar Joseph reports today on a memo accidentally attached to the report when it went out. It was penned by Green-Ceisler, and she wrote about how she felt the commission she did was simply a way for Paul Vallas to attack ex-school safety head Harvey Rice.
Accidentally stuck to the end of the report (”a large, stupid error,” said a schools spokeswoman) is a June memo exchange between Ceisler and Heather Frattone, the district’s director of policy and planning.
In it, Ceisler writes, “At different points during this project, Paul and [other] personnel expressed significant consternation about the OSSA [Rice's Office of Safe Schools Advocate]… . As my study progressed, I sensed that Paul and [others'] main concern was that I discredit the OSSA. In fact during one session with an… employee, I requested some data regarding student arrests. That individual, in my presence, called an employee from the School Police and stated something to the effect that I needed this information because I was hired to ‘trash Harvey Rice’s Office.’ ”
Ceisler goes on to say, “If I had reason to believe, at the outset, that the sole purpose of my contract was to ‘trash’ a critic of the School District, I never would have agreed to undertake this study.”
Even though the woman who authored the report admitted in a memo the district was mainly concerned with trashing Harvey Rice, a school district spokesperson lied, “To suggest that we would go to those lengths is a little absurd… the agenda was clearly not to trash Harvey.”
In other news, whoever accidentally attached that memo to the report has totally been fired.
Gar Joseph | Memo says Vallas hired consultant to fry Rice [Daily News]
[Photo via Al Día]
March 3: Ellen Green-Ceisler Will Attempt To Reform City’s Institutions One-By-One If She Has To
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dmac | 11:22 AM | 0 Comments
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Dec
22
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The Newspaper Guild sent out a memo today warning about, uh, crossing Brian Tierney? Or something. Here’s the memo:
The company today has suspended an employee suspected of producing literature critical of Brian Tierney and the company’s contract proposals and posting that material throughout 400 N. Broad St.
Company managers told the Guild the material was found on the employee’s computer hard drive and that videotapes show the employee putting up the literature around the building. An investigation continues with termination possible.
Jesus, videotapes of the event? It’s like effing CSI over there. Still, if you do something anti-work on your work computer, they can usually easily find out. But this seems kind of, well, isn’t it a few days before Christmas?
No word on who the employee is. Postings were found up in the Inquirer newsroom, so it’s likely an Inky person. Full memo after the jump.
Update: Not a news person, according to people who know. (And people in the comments.) So, uh, not nearly as fun. Sorry for the headline, I mis-typed. Merry Christmas!
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dmac | 2:33 PM | 2 Comments
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Dec
7
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Brian Tierney, who we last saw channeling Hemingway in a letter to State Rep. Mark B. Cohen, has sent out a new memo to the guild, urging for calm, peace, no strike and unity! (It remains to be seen if his definition of being a uniter, not a divider, is the same one as G.W. Bush.)
An excerpt:
What we are proposing is in line with most other companies, both in the media business and other businesses. Ask your friends and neighbors what their companies are doing. [...]
Will this proposal cost everyone a little more? Perhaps. But it is critically important for everyone to understand how difficult the newspaper business has become. You can look all over the country for examples. We simply can no longer afford the very generous pay and benefits of a bygone era, when newspapers dominated the media. We would much prefer for everyone to share a little bit in the pain, so that we can spare perhaps dozens of our colleagues from losing their jobs altogether.
If you’re as confused as I am, here’s the deal: Tierney is talking about the pension fund, and what management… wants… agh! I can’t do it! I can’t write about pension funds! And I like financial news and numbers and I could, at one time, do integrate and derive and even do a little vector calculus. (That didn’t stop me from getting a C in Calc II, but, hey, you take what you can get.)
Anyway, Steve Volk has much more of a stomach for this than I do, and he’s continuing to blog over at The Daily Strike.
Update: Byko and the Guild respond!
Skipping over the self-serving blather, Brian Tierney writes (on Page 2) that “we are all in this together” — except when it comes to directing the investments of our pension fund.
That’s when it becomes “me,” not “we.”
We have a problem with that for one simple reason: It’s OUR money, put there for US by Knight-Ridder. It is not Brian’s money to invest. The fund is both safe and healthy.
Blah blah blah etc. You know the deal with these things. The rest of the Tierney memo is still after the jump.
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dmac | 4:25 PM | 0 Comments
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Nov
28
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We’re just under three days away from the contract expiration between the Newspaper Guild and management of the Inquirer and Daily News, and it seems like the possibility of a strike is inching closer.
Memo just released from the Newspaper Guild:
Please remove personal items that you use or value from the workplace before our current contract expires at midnight Thursday, November 30. If a strike becomes necessary, you will not be allowed to enter the building to retrieve your belongings.
Ruh roh. Full memo after the jump.
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dmac | 12:53 PM | 2 Comments
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Aug
1
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Hey, interested in Joe Natoli’s resignation to go to Miami? Think it’s a little coincidental that negotiations with the union are going on right now and the publisher left?
Well, you ain’t going to get anything like that from these memos. They’re from Natoli and Tierney. But, hey, if Joe Natoli says he just wants to go back to Miami, then… eh. Fair enough. Makes sense! After all, it is only 91 with 50 percent humidity there. That’s downright gorgeous compared to here.
After the jump, Inky/Daily News publisher Joe Natoli talks about his decision to return to Miami and Brian Tierney talks about how much he’ll missh im.
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dmac | 1:20 PM | 0 Comments
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Jul
26
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Steve Volk reports on philadelphiaweekly.com about the a recent Joe Natoli memo which featured, Q&A-style, this exchange:
Q: I heard something about our downtown building being for sale. Is that true?
A: No, but that’s under review. Our building is under-utilized. Options include leasing open space to others, selling the building in a sale/lease-back (which would generate cash to pay down debt, without requiring a move), or selling the building and leasing space in another facility. The issue is how best to realize the value of our real estate. That’s made more interesting by the school board’s recent move to North Broad Street, CBS’s plans to become our neighbor and the Governor’s proposed sale of the state office building just north of us. A decision on the building is probably months away. Having said that, we would always expect to maintain a significant presence in Philadelphia.
Natoli tells Volk that the Inquirer isn’t moving to the suburbs, even if that’s what one could infer from this memo. You can read the whole story and memo here.
Inquirer/Daily News Considering Move to the ’Burbs? [PW]
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dmac | 3:52 PM | 0 Comments
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Jul
6
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 Hey, some actual media news to replace the actual paucity of non-New Jersey shutdown news!
The 411: Daily News editorial page editor Frank Burgos is leaving the position to become managing editor of The Record in Bergen County. The Record’s a respectable paper, and especially since he’s moving to the ME position, it’s clearly a nice step up for the 10-year DN vet.
Clearly, though, the loss of Burgos will be a blow to the paper’s podcast, which we are behind on by only about 50 episodes — though we did notice that the show jumped posted a photo of a kitten the other day. (See photo attached to this post.) While at the paper, he did spearhead a series of editorials about Fairmount Park which was a finalist for a Pulitzer back in 2002, the same year the NYC newspapers dominated the Pulitzers with 9/11 coverage.
The full memo from DN editor Michael Days is after the jump.
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dmac | 12:05 PM | 0 Comments
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Jun
29
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Sometime this afternoon, Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. — the controlling company of the Inquirer, Daily News, Northeast Times, etc. — will officially be sold to Philadelphia Media Holdings, the group headed up by Brian Tierney, Bruce Toll, et al.
To celebrate this monumentous occasion, the papers at 400 N. Broad Street (that’d be the Inky, DN and Philly.com) are having, uhm, a pep rally.
A pep rally. With cheerleaders. And mascots!
From a memo sent to all soon-to-be-former PNI employees:
At 8:45 on Friday morning, June 30th in front of 400 North Broad Street, employees are welcomed to join a press event to witness the Christening of newly wrapped trucks and cheer them on their way.
At Noon - all employees are invited to a PEP RALLY to “Bring Home the News” in the Public Room. Enjoy hoagies and treats with Eagles cheerleaders, mascots, and help give a warm, Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.Com welcome to our new owners.
Be aggressive! Be be aggressive! Uh, in your news coverage.
Full memo after the jump.
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dmac | 12:34 PM | 0 Comments
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Jun
16
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The following is a memo sent from an ad guy at the Inquirer to an advertising list. It was then forwarded to the entire staffs of the Inquirer and Daily News by a PNI person:
—–Original Message—–
From: [redacted]
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 8:39 AM
To: PNI Weekly Update - All; BSCN
Subject: FW: Attention Pizza Lovers
—–Original Message—–
From: [redacted]
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 8:29 AM
To: Advertising List
Cc: [redacted]
Subject: Attention Pizza Lovers
In this Sunday’s Inquirer, Poppa John’s is running a comic gatefold ad. This ad was taken from a competitor to see if we can improve Poppa John’s response. If the response is strong it will lead to additional incremental business for us. So, if you are planning to eat Pizza this weekend please, please go to one of the Poppa John’s locations listed on the gatefold. You may also want to mention that you saw their ad on the comics.
Thanks for your support.
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dmac | 10:36 AM | 5 Comments
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