Philly Wants Some WSJ Action, Too

Sixth borough paper publisher hot-and-bothered over Murdoch

The competition for Dow Jones & Co. is getting even more crowded. Dark horse Philadelphia Inquirer publisher Brian Tierney announced that his company, Philadelphia Media Holdings, is interested in teaming up with outside partners to purchase Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal.

Philadelphia Media Holdings, led by Tierney and Toll Brothers co-founder Bruce E. Toll, purchased the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com for $562 million in 2006 from McClatchy Newspapers. The company’s investors also include NutriSystem CEO Michael Hagan and Sarr Group CEO Leslie A. Brun.

Tierney has a mixed record in Philadelphia: He recently laid off 17 percent of the Inquirer‘s newsroom staff, brought in <a href="http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7827135"advertising staff to redesign the newspaper and, in his prior career as a PR executive, had a reputation of pressuring the Inquirer to squash stories critical of the Catholic Church.

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