NEW YORK PAPER TAKES INTEREST IN PHILADELPHIA

Today’s New York Daily News has an article by Jason Sheften Sheftell — a poor man’s Jessica Pressler, perhaps — about living in Philadelphia.

Some New Yorkers apparently commute to Philadelphia, and only the Acela it only takes an hour and eight minutes to ride up to NYC. Hey, that is pretty quick. He writes about the ridiculously expensive Domus at 34th and Chestnut — $1,799 for a one-bedroom — and, of course:

10-minute walk to Rittenhouse Square and the center of the city, the Graduate Hospital (G-Ho) area has a raw, almost haggard, edge to it. There are abandoned lots next to new construction townhouses next to simple rowhouses that lack the refined elegance and historic charm of Philadelphia’s more established neighborhoods.

Also, this dude got mugged while he was a student at Penn, he says. Guess there weren’t $1800 apartments across the street from the law school back then.

Ever thought of living in Philadelphia? [NY Daily News]

The Bids Are Rolling In! Wait, And Another! And Another!

Okay, so I was all ready to type up a post saying that PNI — the parent company of both the Inquirer and Daily News, which McClatchy is selling after buying Knight Ridder — had gotten only two bids, and then another story moved across the wire saying it had gotten three bids, then I went and got a sandwich, then I came back to as many as six companies who could be buying the papers.

Dow Jones is reporting that these groups have submitted official bids:

• Canadian publisher Black Press Ltd, with investment firm Onex Corp.
• Texas investor Christopher M. Harte
• Philadelphia businessmen Brian Tierney and Bruce Toll, and others
• Yucaipa, paired with the Newspaper Guild
• Possibly the New York Daily News, but maybe not. They dunno. It seems like they didn’t. But maybe they did.

MediaNews may make a bid, but declined to comment to Reuters on if it did or not. Which probably means it didn’t.

So what does this all mean? Well, not much, since these are the groups we all knew might put in bids for the paper. But since it seems like everyone put in a bid, who knows, there could be even more. Heck, it might come up that I made a bid for the papers. (I’m partnering with Bain.)

Bids roll in at McClatchy for Philly newspapers [Reuters/ABCNews.com]