Philadelphia daily newspapers, the Inquirer and the Daily News are now in the hands of creditors. After some delay, an auction was scheduled for this past Tuesday, April 27th, but did not take place until a day later. The auction resulted in a winning bid of about $140 million from lenders, including Credit Suisse, Alden Global Capital, and Angelo, Gordon & Company. The newspapers were bought by Brian Tierney in 2006 for more than $560 million, but later faced bankruptcy in 2009 owing creditors more than $300 million. As profits declined and the debt gap increased, Tierney would eventually continue to fight for control along with local investors as one of the three parties (the third being a Candadian investment company, Stern Partners), in the bidding war which took place in midtown Manhattan.
After the battle of ownership ended, philly.com quoted Tierney who said, "It's been a heck of a fight. We didn't make it. I think I'll go home tonight and sleep like a baby, which means I'll wake up every hour crying."
Read more from philly.com here or this article by nytimes.com.
What do you think about this new ownership of our daily newspapers in Philadelphia? What sort of changes might you predict for the Inquirer, the Daily News and philly.com?
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