Philadelphia Newspapers Bankruptcy Predictably Gets Ugly

Photo: Wikipedia

Ah, Philadelphians. They throw snowballs at Santa Claus and batteries at sports stars and are basically always getting pissy about something, whether it's over a co-worker who gets more attention or a declined credit card. They just love fighting. So is it any wonder that the routine bankruptcy filing by Philadelphia Newspapers, the company that owns the Inquirer and the Daily News, has devolved into chaos? Quoth the New York Times:

"Bankruptcies inevitably involve conflict, driven as they are by an array of competing interests. But the case of Philadelphia Newspapers, the company that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News, appears to be quickly turning into a brawl."

Why is this happening? Well.

Per the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"Brian P. Tierney, chief executive of Philadelphia Newspapers, found a digital voice recorder under some papers on a table where the company met with creditors, two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity said yesterday. The meeting took place in November at the company's headquarters on North Broad Street, the sources said. "

Wait. We're sorry, but we just have to wonder: Why would someone who was making a secret recording leave the tape recorder behind? We're going to go out on a limb here and ask: Is it remotely possible that the recording device found in a conference room at an office building that houses two newspapers belonged to, we don't know ... a reporter? We're just putting that out there for Tierney — a flack who bought the newspapers as a vanity project a few years ago and with his own meaty paws proceeded to strip away the last bits of dignity the once-great papers had left — to mull over, since we're not really sure he knows enough about how the reporting process works to think of it himself. But for his case, we hope we're wrong. Because we know he'd enjoy the fight.

Newspaper firm seeks approval on inquiry []
Tensions Flare in Philadelphia Newspapers Bankruptcy [DealBook/NYT]