The tumultuous Philadelphia
newspaper battle featuring two warring owners slugging it out for control of a
184-year-old paper is a “disgrace,” the reporters’ union said Tuesday, according
to the NY Post.
As the owners fight each other, the Philadelphia Inquirer
and other properties under the corporate umbrella are falling in value,
according to the Newspaper Guild of Philadelphia, which stepped into the ugly
fight in hopes of stopping the feud.
The Guild is urging the warring owners to consider a deal to
sell it to a new ownership group put together by the union.
In addition to the Inquirer, the company being fought over
owns the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com. All three were bought out of
bankruptcy earlier this year by Interstate Media Group, the company owned by
the six-man ownership group.
They group pledged to run the papers as a civic trust and
not interfere with editorial. But the honeymoon did not last long.
The fight basically pits George Norcross, a wealthy
insurance executive and Democratic power broker in New
Jersey , and his board allies, against Lewis Katz, a former owner
of the New Jersey Nets, and his ally, L.H. Lencrat, a Philadelphia philanthropist.
It was all brought to a head when publisher Bob Hall fired
Editor-in-Chief Bill Marimow, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
The exiting editor received a standing ovation from
reporters when he left the newsroom.
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