What’s at Stake for Brian Tierney?
Times are tough at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, where 68 employees were laid off this week following publisher Brian P. Tierney’s telling the newspapers’ unions in January that the company needs to cut 10 percent of its costs by summer or fall or face “a dire situation.”
But could the tough times also be affecting Tierney?
According to a source who has had several recent conversations with the publisher about the difficult financial circumstances at 400 North Broad Street, Tierney has underscored his seriousness about reducing costs by saying “I am not going to lose my house over this.”
While we doubt Tierney’s actually going to lose his house, he may have leveraged some property holdings in order to finance his investment in the Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com.
According to public records at the Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds, a property Tierney owns in Gladwyne was used as collateral against a $4 million loan Tierney received from Commerce Bank on June 27, 2006, just days before financing closed on the media deal.
And, according to public records obtained from the Cape May County Clerk’s Office, Tierney also used a property in Avalon, New Jersey, as collateral against the same loan. That property, a single-family, four bedroom home, is currently listed for sale with the Avalon Real Estate Agency for an asking price of $3.9 million.
Tierney did not respond to a request for comment, referring the matter instead to an attorney who said the documents “do not give a complete or accurate picture of Mr. Tierney’s personal finances” but who declined further comment. — Steve Volk
February 29th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Poor Brian. Maybe he should be signing up for one of those “economic literacy” courses he wants his few remaining employees to take. More layoffs, more inflated circulation numbers, and now this … just imagine how bad it would be if he HADN’T turned things around!
February 29th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
yes
April 9th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Teirney, don’t think of it as losing your house, those communists, socialists, progressives and left wing moonbats in your newsroom and on your editorial board are just seeing to it that your wealth is redistributed to the less talented and less hardworking like themselves.
Let them run your enterprise into the ground catering to their liberal friends and cronies, while insulting and alienating the other 50% of your potential marketplace.
Facts are as much fun for them as bullying the opposition like schoolgirls at lunch in Junior High. You think it’syour paper, but they own it, and run it….straight into the ground.
The only people I feel bad for are the youngsters who will never progress to be a senior reporter, editor or other manager because the old guard killed the Golden Goose after they got their eggs.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
You guys should do your homework better. I have a summer house in Avalon two blocks away from Tierney. He owns two houses on the beach right next to each other. He only has one of them up for sale. I don’t think times are too tough if you still have one multi-million dollar house on the beach.