PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Brian P. Tierney, a former publisher of The Inquirer, was dismissed Tuesday from a $25,000-a-month consulting job with the newspaper’s parent company. Tierney called the loss of his sales and marketing consulting contract “collateral damage of institutional infighting” that has spurred lawsuits among the owners of Interstate General Media. In a statement, he said, “All of those we worked with at The Inquirer have not only been pleased but delighted by the results we have generated.” MORE
PHAWKER: Wait, so they fired you because they were ‘not only pleased but delighted?’
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Associate publisher Michael Lorenca said Tierney’s contract began in April and would end Nov. 30. “We just conducted a review and made the decision to terminate the marketing and sales agreement,” Lorenca said. MORE
PHAWKER: Well-placed sources tell us that Lorenca, who was poised to replace Bob Hall as publisher, has since quit. Read into that what you will.
PREVIOUSLY: LIFE OF BRIAN: Inquirer Ownership Feud Crosses The Line Between Tragedy And Screwball Comedy
RELATED: In 2006, Tierney led a group of investors that purchased the Inky, Daily News and the philly.com website for the inflated price of $515 million. Tierney became CEO of the new ownership group, Philadelphia Media Holdings. By 2009, Philadelphia Media Holdings was bankrupt. In 2010, the two papers and the website was auctioned for $139 million to a bunch of the company’s creditors. In 2012, Interstate General Media [IGM] bought the two papers and philly.com for $55 million, a fraction of what the Tierney group paid. Tierney became CEO of the new ownership group, Philadelphia Media Holdings.The Guild raises amounted to $600,000, Ross said. Tierney also “pulled out of the Guild pension plan,” Ross said. Tierney subsequently used the bankruptcy filing as the reason for not paying a $50 million liability due, leaving “a gaping hole” in the Guild pension plan, Ross said. MORE
UPDATE: George Norcross and another owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer are offering $29 million to buy out their partners and settle the litigation. Norcross and William P. Hankowsky, who own 58 percent of Interstate General Media (holding company for the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com), are offering to buy out Lewis Katz and Gerry Lenfest. If accepted, the deal would settle the current legal battle over the Norcross-backed firing of Editor Bill Marimow. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: George Norcross: The Man Who Destroyed Democracy
PHAWKER: How do people this dumb get so rich?