Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Philly Newspaper Owners Fighting Among Themselves

The tumultuous Philadelphia newspaper battle featuring two warring owners slugging it out for control of a 184-year-old paper is a “disgrace,” the reporters’ union said Tuesday, according to the NY Post.

As the owners fight each other, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other properties under the corporate umbrella are falling in value, according to the Newspaper Guild of Philadelphia, which stepped into the ugly fight in hopes of stopping the feud.

The Guild is urging the warring owners to consider a deal to sell it to a new ownership group put together by the union.

In addition to the Inquirer, the company being fought over owns the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com. All three were bought out of bankruptcy earlier this year by Interstate Media Group, the company owned by the six-man ownership group.

They group pledged to run the papers as a civic trust and not interfere with editorial. But the honeymoon did not last long.

The fight basically pits George Norcross, a wealthy insurance executive and Democratic power broker in New Jersey, and his board allies, against Lewis Katz, a former owner of the New Jersey Nets, and his ally, L.H. Lencrat, a Philadelphia philanthropist.

It was all brought to a head when publisher Bob Hall fired Editor-in-Chief Bill Marimow, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

The exiting editor received a standing ovation from reporters when he left the newsroom.

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