Some Newspaper History from Philadelphia

The City of Brotherly Love Has a Storied Journalistic Tradition

Sep 24, 2009

From Ben Franklin to Pulitzers, Philadelphia journalism has made history. Now, in these challenging times for newpapers, Brian Tierney wants to be part of the story.

Brian Tierney, CEO of Philadelphia Media Holdings which owns the daily newspapers in Philadelphia, now fighting bankruptcy, was once a cantankerous critic of both papers and the reporters who worked at them.

The reporters at the 180-year old Inquirer and its younger sibling, the Daily News (founded in 1925) often returned the favor, dismissing Tierney as little more than a bullying self-promoter. So Tierney – "a brawler in a city overflowing with brawlers," wrote Rachel Smolkin in the American Journalism Review – seemed a most unlikely candidate as a future owner and cheerleader for the Philly papers.

Maybe even more unexpected than the prospect of Tierney embracing newspapers as a "public trust," is the about face by the reporters: welcoming Tierney as their new boss, and cheering for his success.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is a good example of a growing group of once proud big-city print news outlets that have fallen into bankruptcy . Like the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and others, the Inquirer faces a very uncertain future. Unlike the others, though, the Inquirer has a hometown team fighting to keep ownership.

Franklin is part of the City's Great Journalism Stories

Taking a look at some of the paper's long history, one is reminded that journalism, as well as the news business which presents it, is never static, always evolving and transitioning. Experts say the current transition, moving from print to a digital model, is more revolution than evolution. But the fact remains: change has always been a constant in the history of journalism.

And Philadelphia, the cradle of so much American history, has always produced great stories about journalism. Its leading colonial citizen was Benjamin Franklin after all, and one of that founding father's many careers – publishing magnate – began there in earnest in 1729 when he purchased the Pennsylvania Gazette. Fittingly, Franlkin is depicted reading a newspaper in a 1987 bronze sculpture at the University of Pennsylvania.

Exactly 100 years after Ben Franklin bought the Gazette, the Inquirer emerged in 1829 – the brainchild of John Norvell and John R.Walker. At times, in the decades to come, the paper would just barely survive, and at other times, it would produce achievements ranking at the top of American journalism.

Norvell and Walker, their fledgling competing with 6 other daily newspapers, didn't make it 6 months. But they sold their paper to Jesper Harding who found a way to keep it going, and by the 1840s, his Inquirer was enjoying a certain literary success; it was the first American paper to obtain the serial rights to novels of Charles Dickens, and in 1845 it published Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Raven." Jesper's son William joined him in the business in 1855; together the Hardings published the paper for six decades.

The Inquirer became a major paper during the U. S. Civil War when its extensive and even-handed war coverage was valued by both sides in the conflict. Edgar Williams, a former Inquirer staff writer, tells the paper's exciting story during these years. "A History of The Inquirer" by Williams, available in an online archive only, offers details of:

More Owners: the Annenbergs, Knight Ridder, now Tierney

For much of the 20th century the Inquirer was synonymous with the Annenbergs, the wealthy publishing family which acquired it in 1936 and sold when Walter Annenberg was appointed Ambassador to England in 1969. In 1975, owned by Knight Ridder, Inc., and edited by Gene Roberts who came to it from the New York Times, the Inquirer entered a fabulous era, often invoked now as a standard of excellence for newspapers. The paper won seventeen Pulitzer prizes in15 years.

Then in the 1990s, the newspaper industry in general contracting, Knight Ridder found it more and more difficult to support the expensive journalism done at its biggest newspapers. When Knight Ridder itself broke apart in 2005, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and also the Daily News found themselves once again in search of an owner.

It did not take Brian Tierney long to figure out that a hometown owner - and in particular, one like himself who had at times been the papers' loudest critic, and now wanted to come to their rescue - just might make another excellent story in the annals of Philadelphia journalism.

It remains uncertain whether he will be able to keep control after bankruptcy, and even if he does, how the papers will fare in these transitioning times. But that will be the next chapter.

The copyright of the article Some Newspaper History from Philadelphia in Newspaper Industry is owned by Kathlin F. Sickel. Permission to republish Some Newspaper History from Philadelphia in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.