People Papers

I see via Howard's post that there is an effort to buy the Inky and the 'News from McClatchy Co., but this time, by private individuals in a Green Bay Packers style ownership plan. Via Editor and Publisher:

Brian Tierney said he has lined up 20 "super-successful" Philadelphia businesspeople in an investment group ready to partner with others, including the Newspaper Guild, to buy the papers. The Inquirer and the tabloid Daily News were sold Monday by Knight Ridder to The McClatchy Co., which immediately announced they and 10 other papers were for sale.

In a telephone interview, Tierney said the group was committed to long-term ownership. "We're looking at this as partly a good economic investment, and partly as good community involvement," he said. "It would be a sort of Green Bay Packers kind of ownership."

Tierney said the papers had "suffered from corporate ownership, which was a good thing in the 1960s and 1970s...but at the same time, we've seen that corporate ownership has been no panacea (when) you're looking at things just quarter-to-quarter."

Some big movers and shakers in Philadephia want to buy the papers. Interesting.

Would it result in angry owners if the paper writes stories that portray their private interests in a negative [but factually accurate] light? Would they intervene? Would it result in puff pieces on the private interests of the new owners? Maybe for a little bit, to pat them on their backs. But I think that the people wouldn't stand for it through the initial honeymoon period. They'd start chucking D batteries at them if seen on the street.

Ultimately, the papers would be locally owned, locally grown which sounds nice.