BREAKING: Brian Tierney’s State of the Unions Speech?
Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney will meet this morning with union heads representing the vast majority of employees at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. According to sources inside the newsroom, the main topic of the 10 a.m. meeting will be the “shitty state of the economy” and its expected effects on the newspapers. He might also address the status of the expected sale of the company’s historic headquarters at 400 North Broad Street.
Tierney held a similar meeting with newsroom management late last week in which he applauded the newsroom’s efforts and boasted of a huge spike in pageviews on philly.com, the company’s web property. Before anyone could order up a case of champagne, however, he also noted the advertising department needs to “step up its efforts” and said the current hiring freeze would continue “for the most part.”
The hiring freeze is of particular interest because Inquirer editors have been meeting with potential new hires for several weeks. Now it seems that at least some of that hiring might be put on hold. Stay tuned for whatever it is Tierney has to say to the troops. — Steve Volk
Photo: Bill Cramer