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The sale of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News seemed on the verge of collapse Monday, with the prospective new owner reporting no progress in reaching an accord with the company's drivers over their pension benefits. The new owner, Philadelphia Media Network Inc., has a noon Tuesday deadline to close on its purchase of the newspapers and the website Philly.com. The deadline was imposed by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich, who has overseen the company's bankruptcy case. Without a contract agreement with the drivers, there will be no sale, according to Gregory Osberg, chief executive officer of Philadelphia Media...

The largest union of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News is suing the newspapers' owner for merging two employee pension plans without its consent, charging that one plan is severely underfunded and would endanger the health of the second pension. A court hearing was to be held Wednesday in the case of The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia against Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, a unit of Philadelphia Media Holdings. U.S. District Court Judge Berle M. Schiller has granted a temporary restraining order. The judge said that while the pensions have merged, the funds haven't been commingled. The lawsuit, filed last week,...

The Philadelphia Inquirer had its Sunday circulation knocked down by 17,209 copies and its average daily circulation by 211 copies according to an Audit Bureau of Circulations publisher's statement. These are adjustments in the circulation numbers the paper reported on the ABC FAS-FAX report in September 2007. For the six months ending September 2007, the paper revised its Sunday circulation from 662,304 to 645,095 -- a decline of 2.6%. Its daily (Monday-Friday) circulation went from 338,260 to 338,049, a nominal difference. Both the FAS-FAX and the publisher's statements come out twice a year and mirror the same six-month period. The...

From: Frank Santafede Sent: Wed 2/27/2008 2:55 PM Subject: Philadelphia Newspapers Lays off 68 Guild Members Philadelphia Newspapers Lays off 68 Guild Members Feb. 27, 2008 The Company laid off 68 Guild members today from the advertising, circulation, customer service, finance, marketing and systems departments. This amounts to almost 10 percent of the union’s membership. Company officials said that a very small number of managers would be laid off. “If the revenue is not there, then we have to cut expenses,” Michael Lorenca, executive vice president of Human Resources, told Guild officers. He said he did not know how much...

Make an offer: landmark 1920s-era newspaper building. Looks like wedding cake. Gold cap. Pulitzer plaques not included. Brian Tierney, chief executive officer of Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., said today that the company would sell the Inquirer Building, which also houses the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, and downtown property to reduce debt and reinvest into the company's media businesses. The company will offer the 18-story building for sale to real estate developers in an offering memorandum mailed nationwide in September. The company also is soliciting in the memorandum ideas for where to put the 950 journalists, ad people, executives, computer...

NEW YORK Less than a week after about 70 newsroom employees were laid off at the Philadelphia Inquirer, at least 34 advertising positions - including 16 part-timers - are being cut today at Philadelphia Newspapers, which handles business operations for the Inquirer and Daily News. Henry Holcomb, president of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, said the affected employees were being informed Monday morning one by one, with union representatives sitting in on the meetings with management. "We have just gotten word and they are in the process of informing them now," Holcomb said about the impacted employees, who are...

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday began a round of long-expected layoffs amid a drop in circulation and ad revenue. Several reporters at the Inquirer, Pennsylvania's largest newspaper, said they were told Tuesday morning that their jobs were being eliminated. The employees said that they were told to meet with personnel officials on Wednesday to discuss details of their severance pay and health benefits. The specific number of layoffs is still unclear because some Inquirer employees have already taken other jobs since word of the impending layoffs was announced in November. Neither company spokesman Jay Devine nor Inquirer editor...

After talks between Philadelphia's two largest papers and their biggest union bogged down over pension issues last night, the head of the union urged management to "sober up" or face a strike as early as today. Representatives of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia warned evening-shift workers at The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News to be prepared for a walkout today after yesterday's bargaining session ended. Guild president Henry J. Holcomb said in a memo that the papers' owners refused to compromise on their "desire to take full control of our [pension] fund" and stop contributions to the plan. "The...

PHILADELPHIA -- The largest union at Philadelphia's two major daily newspapers said Monday that its members don't want another one-month contract extension and are prepared to go on strike once the current pact expires Thursday. The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, which represents over 900 workers at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, met with management over the holiday weekend and made limited progress, said union President Henry Holcomb. The union is especially opposed to proposals by owner Philadelphia Media Holdings to take over the pension plan and scrap seniority. The company has proposed halting payments to the pension...

Marimow Predicts 'Painful' Cuts At 'Philadelphia Inquirer' Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore 'Sun' Bill Marimow By Joe Strupp Published: November 09, 2006 10:55 AM ET NEW YORK Incoming Philadelphia Inquirer Editor William Marimow told his new staff Wednesday that cuts are likely at the legendary paper, but promised that the daily would continue to provide quality news, although more of it local, the Inquirer reported Thursday. "With the paper facing a costly fall in national advertising and tough union contract talks with a Nov. 30 deadline, Marimow warned of 'painful' staff cuts and narrower horizons at a paper that has prided itself on...

The Philadelphia Inquirer newsroom has received a request from Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney. “We’ve been asked to plan for as many as 150 people to be laid off,” says Inquirer managing editor Anne Gordon. That figure represents more than a third of the newspaper’s editorial staff. At the end of last week Inquirer columnist Tom Ferrick had issued a memo cautioning the staff not to panic and reminding them the layoff threat had arrived during tough contract negotiations. The Newspaper Guild, which represents Inquirer and Daily News editorial employees, is refusing to accept several of management’s contract proposals,...

PHILADELPHIA Members of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia voted overwhelmingly Thursday to authorize a strike against the city's two biggest newspapers if such action becomes necessary. An estimated 500 of the union's 1,000 members who work for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News attended a Guild meeting where leaders talked about how little progress has been made toward a new contract. The strike vote recorded only four "no" votes. The current contract expires at midnight Tuesday. The bargaining has been "tough, to say the least," said union leader Diane Mastrull. She said the presence of a federal mediator,...

NEW YORK Joe Natoli, publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, is leaving the papers. He has accepted a job with the University of Miami as chief financial officer. The Inquirer reported that Brian Tierney, CEO of Philadelphia Media Holdings, and consultant Gordon Medenica will share Natoli's duties. "For some time now, I have thought about taking on a new challenge, this after 30 years in the newspaper business. I wanted an opportunity where I could learn new things, contribute to the community and spend some more time with my family," Natoli wrote in a staff memo. Natoli was...

“That’s not what I was trying to signal,” says publisher Joe Natoli by Steve Volk Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News publisher Joe Natoli sent out one of his monthly memos yesterday, 24 hours before the start of negotiations with the newspapers’ unions on a new contract. The missive runs on for roughly five pages (see full text below), and includes news that the newspaper company’s iconic white tower offices at 400 N. Broad St. might end up for sale. “Our building is under-utilized,” says Natoli. “Options include leasing open space to others, selling the building in a sale/lease-back (which could...

A YEAR ago, I was talking on the phone to the editor of a major newspaper for a column I was working on. With business concluded, we had The Conversation, the one about the large boulder that seems to be tumbling through the newspaper business. "How old are you?" he asked. Forty-nine, I told him. "Me too. Do you think we outrun this thing?" I said I thought so. But I wonder whether it will be the same for my friend Michael Schaffer. At 32, Michael Currie Schaffer — one of two Michael Schaffers who writes for The Inquirer —...

Onex Corp., a Toronto investment firm that is among the six known bidders for The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, has floated plans for deep cuts in the newsrooms at both papers, according to Teamsters union leaders. Onex representatives have visited the city at least three times, meeting with publisher Joe Natoli, other newspaper executives and Teamsters leaders since the McClatchy Co. put the papers up for sale last month. McClatchy plans to buy the newspapers' owner, Knight Ridder Inc., this summer, but the Sacramento, Calif.-based chain is selling the newspapers in Philadelphia and 10 other cities. Bids for the...

He urged McClatchy Co. to sell to the Calif. firm. HARRISBURG - Gov. Rendell contacted a McClatchy Co. board member this month to urge the newspaper chain to sell The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News to an investor group headed by prominent Democratic donor Ron Burkle. Rendell said in a brief interview Tuesday that he called Kevin McClatchy, owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, about two weeks ago and asked him to pass on his support for Burkle's California-based Yucaipa Cos. L.L.C. to the McClatchy Co. McClatchy Co. has agreed to buy Knight Ridder Inc., but plans to sell 12 of...

OF ALL THE worrisome scenarios about the future of Philadelphia's two daily newspapers, the one I've read the most is that no potential buyer will continue to operate both of them. I don't pretend to understand the numbers, but if some investor decides he can't turn an adequate profit by operating both papers, then I'm sorry it has to be this way: Farewell, Inquirer. Yeah, I know, the conventional thinking is, if any paper folds, it would be the smaller Daily News. Compared to the weighty Inquirer, we seem so dispensable. But before the new owner drops the ax, he...

William Dean Singleton likes to buy big papers that face tough competition. In 1987, William Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group Inc. bought the troubled Denver Post from Times Mirror Co. for $25 million, plus a promise to pay $70 million later. Five years later, Times Mirror wrote off $65 million that MediaNews had not paid. But Singleton kept the Post, waging a bruising battle with the rival Rocky Mountain News. He won: In 2000, the Rocky's owner, E.W. Scripps Co., closed its Sunday newspaper and paid MediaNews $60 million to combine operations with the Post, which had become a far more...

With the McClatchy Company set to accept bids, starting as early as tomorrow, for the 12 Knight Ridder papers it is selling, some of the potential buyers are looking at the country as if it were a giant chessboard. The goal is not to topple a king but to become one — a king of each regional market where potential buyers already own newspapers and can achieve economies of scale by buying pieces of Knight Ridder. snip The sales are likely to lead to a further consolidation of the newspaper industry around the country. During the last decade or so,...