Report: Brian Tierney May Not Have Been a Good Ad Man

Ralph Cipriano reports from a "confidential memo."

Anybody who knows the history between former Inky scribe Ralph Cipriano and former Inky publisher Brian Tierney knows it’s not a good one—soured, in fact, long before Tierney took ownership of the city’s major daily papers for a few years last decade. (A brief accounting can be found in this 2006 profile of Tierney.) It’s probably good information to keep in mind when reading that Tierney departed his job as an ad man for the Inquirer after Cipriano reported last month on his $25,000 monthly salary; and also that Cipriano has followed up with a report suggesting that Tierney probably wasn’t that great at the job.

Bottom line, as per Cipriano’s sources:

Tierney came up empty on landing any accounts, new or old, in April, May, June and July. In August, he landed Temple University as an account for $59,000 worth of ads. In September, he brought in $35,000 from Temple University and $9,000 from Widener University, for a total of $44,000.

So, over six months from April to September, he brought in $103,000 in ad revenues, according to the confidential records, including $94,000 from Temple, and $9,000 from Widener. During that same six-month period, the records show, he was paid $137,500, for a total net loss of $34,500.

Bill Ross, executive director of the Newspaper Guild that represents journalists at the paper, observed to Cipriano: “Just looking at the first four months, the fact that he generated zero business and received $87,000, it looks to me like the company was paying him to breathe.” Tierney, meanwhile, has apparently threatened to sue Cipriano for reporting all of this information based on a confidential memo that Tierney says was “replete with falsehoods.”