Poynter on the Record

In Philadelphia it is called The Pledge. The new owners of the Inquirer and the Daily News had to sign it if they wanted to join CEO-in-waiting Brian Tierney and become part of the deal that has put the two newspapers in local hands.

What is that pledge worth? The happy fact is we don't know the answer to questions like that. A lot depends on the people there and the choices they make. So if enough people--and the right ones--hold the owners to their pledge of non-interference, it is more likely to be a binding one.

The meaning of what was signed isn't stable. There's a politics to the situation that has to play itself out, and there are lots of participants. In the public arena itself lies the fate of the pledge, and of the "great national experiment" Philadelphia will be conducting with the institution of the daily press. ...

...Tierney, the new boss, who is self-made and a Republican, showed considerable skill in pulling the deal off. He comes out of advertising and public relations in the Philly area. He has tangled--sometimes brutally--with reporters and editors because his clients have been big companies and institutions, like the Catholic Church in Philly.

Some think he's been effective at press intimidation on behalf of the rich and powerful, who pay his fees. There's a history there. Now that Tierney is the executive in charge of the Philly newspapers, that history is exerting its pressure. ...

...[O]wnership can define who "the public" is, and that directly affects the newsroom. Look at the St. Petersburg Times. It has a circulation of 337,000 in a metro area of 2.6 million. The Miami Herald's circulation is smaller (311,000) in a metro area far larger (5.3 million). How did that happen?

Andy Barnes, then publisher of the Times, explained it thusly in 1999: "We have spent large sums over the last 25 years extending the paper's range, north through Citrus County, and now including Hillsborough as well. If an owner had been demanding immediate profits, we could not have done so, and we would not have become Florida's largest daily newspaper."
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