Marimow Predicts 'Painful' Cuts At 'Philadelphia Inquirer' (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

GONE WITH THE WIND - 2006
"There was a land of Publishers and Editors called the Newspaper Business... Here in this pretty world Journalism took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Reporters and their Enablers, of Anonymous Sources and of Stringers... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization Gone With the Wind..."

With apologies to Margaret Mitchell...

Ping

Raoul's First Law of Journalism
BIAS = LAYOFFS

Don`t they get points for Santorum ?

Marimow Predicts 'Painful' Cuts At 'Philadelphia Inquirer'

Whoops. Misread.

Hopefully the P'burgh Post-Gazette will not suffer the long slow death of the Philly Inquirer and we'll just get up one morning soon and it will be DEAD! I have a friend who insists on buying it, cutting out articles, and sending them to me. After I read them, I feel the need for a haz-mat shower, kind of like after a trip to DU!

Don't ever wrap your catch with that rag.

You will never get that smell out of the fish.

The Post-Gazette is slighted but just plain mean.

ping

Most effective of bringing the MSM to heel is to cancel your subscriptions.

Either they change or they die. No other alternative.

My apologies to Walter Winchell!

The best place to start cutting at the Philadelphia Rag, I mean Inquirer, is right below the waist and behind it. They never had a balls anyway (I read it when I was in college and cried, as compared to the great Phila. Bulletin. One of my floormate's father was a VP at the Inquirer, "he said in a whispher".

As for doing some cutting behind the waist, that is where their head and brain is located. Nothing like a fiscal lobotamy and reduced paychecks to tell the editors and staff that their paper sucks - biased, slanted, and leftist.

Hey, maybe they can get the same proctologist to do the brain surgery who is also working on getting Kerry's foot out of his arse.

And while they are doing some house cleaning, get rid of that clown of a mayor. He's a disgrace to the "City of Brotherly Murder".

Served four years in that place going to college. It looks worse now that it did 40 years ago, only the slums have moved west a bit.

Marimow, who plans to start the week of Nov. 27, also called for "excellent" and "indispensable" competitive journalism - online, audio and print, the paper reported. But he stressed that the paper's focus will be local, telling the Inquirer "we will no longer be sending battalions of staffers to cover news like Hurricane Katrina and the war in Baghdad."

Little if any need to "watchdog" government with their darling Democrats running the show.

The Pinky's City Desk is no longer manned 24/7.

All The News To Snooze To.

.......although more of it local........

The Writing is on the wall....... this is the way of the future.

The Associated Press, producer of crAP and leftwing propaganda will feel the pressure as it is relegated to the trash bin.

Marimow Says 'Inquirer' Financial Problems Worse Than When He Was At 'The Sun'

By Joe Strupp

Published: November 10, 2006 3:20 PM ET

NEW YORK After being fired nearly three years ago from his last newspaper job at The Sun in Baltimore, at least in part for objecting to that paper's budget-cutting approach, it is somewhat surprising that William Marimow would return to the newspaper business -- and to a paper likely in worse financial shape than the one he left.

But Marimow, appointed this week to replace Amanda Bennett as editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, seems to believe the best reason to return to the newspaper business is to help such an economically-struggling paper make it. Especially when it's in his hometown.

Marimow points out that the Inquirer's need for cutbacks is far greater than what he left at The Sun in January 2004. While he stopped short of criticizing his former employers in Baltimore for their cost-cutting moves, he hinted that the reductions he faces in Philadelphia are clearly more of a necessity for the paper to survive.

"When I was fired, The Sun had profit margins that I believe exceeded 20%, robust profit margins; The Sun did not have debt to pay off, and The Sun was backed by an 11-paper national news organization which provided a ton of content," he said. "The Inquirer is in a period of declining revenue and reduced profit margins; the new owners have a major debt service to pay off; and the Inquirer no longer has the resources of Knight Ridder to buttress the content."

Saying he believes the new owners, Publisher Brian Tierney and Philadelphia Newspaper Holdings, are "really committed to having an excellent paper for the long-term," Marimow stressed that the paper had to change in order to live within its means. Part of that includes his recent prediction that it would cut back original national and foreign reporting and focus more on local efforts.

"I have come to believe that a newspaper has to tailor its mission to the resources that are available," Marimow, 59, said. "I don't think a newspaper like the Inquirer can sustain a network of national and foreign bureaus. But if the mission is defined as being the absolute authoritative source on Philadelphia and South Jersey, it can do it."

After leaving The Sun following a 10-year stint, Marimow took the post of managing editor/news at National Public Radio in May 2004, later rising to vice president for news. He switched posts just last month to became NPR ombudsman, before agreeing to the Inquirer job.

When asked why he would return to the cost-cutting world of newspapers, and especially a paper so obviously slated for downsizing, Marimow said it was the draw of his hometown.

"The Inquirer is really where I learned to be a reporter and be an editor and where I met the journalists who have been most influential on my life," said Marimow, a Philadelphia native and former longtime Inquirer reporter and editor who worked at the paper from 1972 to 1993. "I've got a ton of friends there."

Marimow said he was interested in the job soon after the paper was sold last summer. He recalled going to see the movie "Invincible" last August, about former Philadelphia Eagle Vince Papale, which was filmed with numerous Philadelphia images. "It really piqued my interest when Brian Tierney and his partners bought the Inquirer," he said. He also praised Bennett and her staff for "putting out an excellent paper under trying circumstances."

But has Marimow allowed his nostalgia for his former paper, and hometown, to cloud the reality of the situation? After all, the Inquirer he last worked for -- under the legendary Eugene Roberts -- is not the same one he will manage under new owner Brian Tierney.

He said nostalgia is not guiding his judgment, and vows to cut costs, but maintain quality. "My goal is to mitigate the pain and move swiftly to the point where the pain is diminished by great journalism," he said. "My belief is that, in this era, you have to formulate a mission that has to equate to the company. In the long term, The Inquirer can be the best newspaper its size in America."

Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.

Links referenced within this article

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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/mailto:jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com">http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/mailto:jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com

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must read update...

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/11/27/8394325/

A PR magnate struggles to revive a newspaper
Is Brian Tierney the Philadelphia Inquirer's savior - or worse than Knight Ridder?
FORTUNE Magazine
By Devin Leonard, Fortune senior writer
November 13 2006: 10:42 AM EST

(Fortune Magazine) -- It's been a rough five months for Brian Tierney, CEO of the private company that bought the Philadelphia Inquirer in June. His employees are up in arms. Ad revenues are evaporating fast. And if that wasn't bad enough, Tierney is getting grief from his family.

He recently took a call from his older brother, who jokingly told him that his employees were going to burn him in effigy in front of the Inquirer building. Would Tierney mind if he went? "Nothing like having a funny brother who's an investor," grumbles the fledgling newspaper publisher.

Don't laugh. Tierney, a former public relations dynamo, has gone from hero to knave in journalism circles faster than just about anybody in recent memory. He was welcomed as a savior when he and a group of investors bought the Inquirer and its sister, the tabloid Daily News, for $515 million.

The Inquirer's longtime owner, publicly traded Knight Ridder, decimated the Pulitzer Prize-winning staff in an attempt to satisfy Wall Street. Even so, last year some of its big investors forced the company to put itself up for sale.

At the time, there was a lot of talk in newsrooms, journalism schools and even investment banks that a big-city broadsheet like the Inquirer would be better off in the hands of a wealthy citizen willing to tolerate lower profit margins than Wall Street in exchange for the power and influence that come from sitting in the publisher's office. Tierney did little to discourage these hopes when he was bidding for the paper.

But after watching recent events at the Inquirer, newspaper industry observers are reverting to their customary cynicism. It was always clear that Tierney would need to win concessions from the unions at the Inquirer and Daily News. But now he's at loggerheads with the company's biggest union, the Newspaper Guild, which is threatening to strike and has asked a federal mediator to referee contract negotiations.

In September, Tierney announced that he had been blind-sided by a sharp drop in advertising - he cited a 10 percent decline for that month alone - that could keep his company from meeting its obligations on the $350 million it had borrowed to finance the acquisition. In other words, it looks as if he and his investors overpaid.

Tierney argues otherwise, and insists that it's way too soon to pass judgment. He's right. But it's fair to say that the story of Tierney's first five months is a cautionary tale for the other wealthy individuals who have expressed interest in buying large dailies.

Insurance magnate Eli Broad and billionaire Ron Burkle have submitted a bid for the Tribune Co., in the hopes of winning control of that company's embattled Los Angeles Times.

The Tribune Co. (Charts) recently fired both editor Dean Baquet and publisher Jeffrey Johnson of the Times after they resisted demands to cut the staff. (David Geffen is also vying for the paper.)

Jack Welch is part of a group that has approached the New York Times Co. (Charts) about buying the Boston Globe. If Tierney's experience is any indication, they may get far more than they bargained for should they succeed.
A media mogul

Before buying the Inquirer, Tierney, 49, was the man Philadelphia's rich and powerful called when they were besieged by camera crews. He is funny, brash and more than willing to boast of his entrepreneurial prowess.

In the past decade, he sold two public relations firms he had founded. He sits on the board of NutriSystem, a diet-food company in suburban Philadelphia, and he played a role in the company's recent turnaround, which he attributes largely to a no-brainer decision to up the annual marketing budget from $1 million to $90 million.

For years people speculated that Tierney, active in Republican circles, would one day run for office. Instead he chose to become a media mogul. He tried and failed to buy Inc. and Fast Company from Gruner & Jahr in 2005.

Then a more attractive opportunity arose. In March the McClatchy Co. (Charts) announced it was buying Knight Ridder. But Sacramento-based McClatchy wanted to sell the Philadelphia papers because they were heavily unionized and located in a slow-growing older city.

Tierney backed his bid with a brilliant PR blitz. The Inquirer's editorial staff viewed him as a Voldemort-like character. Over the years he had had some nasty battles with reporters on behalf of his clients.

What if he used the papers to advance his former clients' interests? Tierney shrewdly defused the issue by signing a pledge not to interfere with the editorial side. He charmed the paper's labor leaders by getting the local carpenters' union pension fund to join his investing group. He said he would revive the Inquirer by ramping up the marketing, not by laying people off.
Trouble brewing

His enthusiasm was persuasive, and everybody was happy when the Tierney group bought the Philadelphia papers. But the good will soon dissipated. Tierney inherited a web of union agreements with decades-old work rules that other publishers view as among the most archaic in the country.

He was flummoxed upon learning that Knight Ridder didn't send its union-represented salespeople to meet clients in Chicago because they had to be paid time and a half.

Tierney says this was his response: "Guys, how bad is it if I ask you to leave your house for a night, fly out to Chicago, stay at the Hyatt, go to Morton's, have steak with a client, a bottle of wine, maybe take them out to listen to some jazz on Rush Street, come back the next morning, get a big commission, and put in your expenses? Is that punishing?" He also laments that pressmen are paid time and a half when they go on vacation.

With the union contracts all set to expire Aug. 31, Tierney had an opportunity to change things. But instead of sending in fresh faces to talk to the unions, he used some of the same people who had negotiated for Knight Ridder. It didn't help that the new owners also wanted to freeze the pension program and institute a 401(k) plan.

The Guild, which represents about 1,000 of the company's 2,400 full-time employees, pushed back hard. It commissioned a radio attack ad lambasting Tierney. Members also gave Guild leaders permission to call a strike.

While all this rancor simmered, Tierney made the stunning announcement that layoffs were now inevitable because the Inquirer's ad revenues - particularly those from national clients - had nose-dived in September. October, he said, looked even worse.

Naturally, Inquirer newsroom people wonder whether Tierney is spinning. But other newspaper company CEOs say they are grappling with the same ad problems.

"He happened to enter the industry right when national advertising went into a tailspin," says William Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group, the privately held owner of 54 dailies, including the Denver Post. "I've been in this business for 30 years, and I didn't see it coming."

Some newspaper columnists say Tierney's talk of layoffs proves that private local owners are no better than public chains. But they are missing the point. The Inquirer is in a bind because Knight Ridder nibbled away at the Inquirer rather than confronting the unions about the archaic work rules. It could accept subpar profits from the Inquirer because it had money flowing in from 30 other papers.

"Whenever there was a showdown, Knight Ridder blinked," says Zack Stalberg, editor of the Daily News from 1984 to 2005. "The current owner can't afford to blink."

Tierney seems to understand what's at stake. He's considering cutting the combined staffs of the two papers' newsrooms from 535 to 385. But Tierney suggests that the cuts might not be that bad if he gets the work-rule changes he's seeking (he's already won concessions from seven smaller unions).

Either way, Tierney says, he plans to increase the marketing budget from $300,000 to $5 million. "We're going to grow this company," he says. "We're starting next year with the marketing dollars. Actually, we're starting next year with the interest payments. Then we're going to add in the marketing dollars."

He steers the conversation back to his favorite topic: the bright future he envisions for the Inquirer. He recently hired William Marimow, a former Inquirer reporter with several Pulitzers, to be the paper's new editor. He wants to expand the two papers' Web franchise. He has an array of targeted niche products in mind to rejuvenate ad sales. He's a seasoned-enough public relations guy to make it all sound plausible.

Then again, the newspaper ad recession may get a lot worse. The unions could strike. Tierney's not out of the woods yet. Are you listening, Jack Welch?

Tierney's arguably futile best bet on public relations lies with stopping Inkysaraus from insulting half its potential customers.

Tierney's arguably futile best bet on public relations lies with stopping Inkysaraus from insulting half its potential customers.

Good luck to Brian Tierney. He'll have to burn the place down in order to save it...

Updates...
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/16022603.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Thu, Nov. 16, 2006

Phila. papers get new executive VP

By Joseph N. DiStefano
Inquirer Staff Writer

Mark J. Frisby, publisher of Gannett Co. Inc.'s Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, has been named executive vice president for production, labor and purchasing at Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., which publishes The Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com.

Frisby, a Paulsboro native who rose through the ranks at a series of Gannett's New Jersey papers, "has tremendous cost-management skills," Philadelphia Media chief executive officer Brian Tierney said.

The appointment was effective immediately. Gannett said it would replace Frisby at the Courier-Post with Walt Lafferty, publisher of the Daily Record in Morristown, N.J.

Frisby's Philadelphia position is new; production, purchasing and labor-relations executives at the papers will report to him.

Labor contract negotiations continue with the papers' largest unions, the Newspaper Guild and the Teamsters. The contracts expire Nov. 30. The company has warned both unions to expect job cuts.

Tierney said he had told union officers he was also reviewing vendor contracts and expected substantial savings. He said Frisby's experience would be valuable in cutting purchasing deals.

Tierney said he expected more high-level hirings soon. "Over the next few weeks, we'll be filling out the team," he said.
Contact staff writer Joseph N. DiStefano at 215-854-5957 or jdistefano@phillynews.com.

http://www.phawker.com/?p=489
STOP THE PRESSES: Rumblings From The Smoking Volcano Of Fear And Loathing That Is 400 North Broad

READERS IN THE KNOW REPORT: Sounds like the ugliness is about to begin. Just heard that Business Editor Bob Rose is leaving to take a job at Smart Money magazine. This morning, the talk in the newsroom is that Mark Frisby, head Gannett-bot publisher of the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, is coming on board as — get this: Vice President for Acquisitions. Frisby is one of the acolytes of former C-P publisher Robert T. Collins, who oversaw Gannett’s slash-and-burn takeover of the Asbury Park Press in the 1990s.

During the first year of Gannett’s ownership of the Press, the newsroom underwent a purge not unlike the one about to happen on Broad Street. In the next few years, the Press went from being one of the most respected, family-owned midsized papers in the Northeast to being another candy-colored, no-jumper Gannett outlet, a Happy Meal of a paper.

Explain to me how a company that’s broke and wondering how they’re going to make their upcoming debt service payments needs someone to handle “acquisitions”? Or am I missing something. Senior management is in a meeting right now, to be followed by a 2pm meeting in which managers are expected to get their strike assignments.

UPDATE: What the strike papers would look like: Inquirer: daily paper, 32 pages, four-section TABLOID. Ah, the irony. A 40-page Sunday paper, five sections, also tabloid. Daily News: 32-page daily. They’re assuming any strike would last for at least one week, but the tone of the meeting was not panciky, more like better safe than sorry. Also, the contract expires november 30th and — this is definitely news — the company expects to have all the other union contracts in place by then and DOES expect they will cross the picket lines, which would mean they’d definitely have a paper on the street, not just on the Internet.