Philadelphia Media Holdings
In 2005 Tierney attempted to buy magazines Inc. and Fast Company from Gruner + Jahr, but failed. Tierney tried again to enter the media industry in March 2006 when he assembled a group of mostly former clients or people that are with him on the board of the Episcopal Academy to buy Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. He and other local businessman formed Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC and bought The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com for US$515 million from The McClatchy Company which was selling off newspapers in low growth markets after buying Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.'s parent company Knight Ridder. The buyout was met with skepticism by many at The Inquirer, especially by reporters who had been contacted in the past by Tierney on behalf of his clients. Tierney allayed fears with the members of Philadelphia Media Holdings signing a pledge not to interfere with the paper's editorial independence. Tierney said he would combat The Inquirer's decreasing revenue by spending millions on advertisements and promotions and not by laying off staff. Tierney assumed the role as publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer in August 2006 after former publisher Joe Natoli resigned for a job at the University of Miami.
The Inquier's circulation has been dropping since the 1980s, and except for briefly seeing a rise in weekday circulation in 2007, The Philadelphia Inquirer's weekday and Sunday circulation has continued to steadily drop since Philadelphia Media Holdings bought the paper. Loss of circulation combined with an unexpected drop in advertising revenue have forced more than 400 job cuts at The Inquirer and Daily News since they were bought by Philadelphia Media Holdings. As Philadelphia Media Holdings financial situation worsened in 2008 employees began complaining about how management has been monitoring things such as bathroom breaks and the coffee they drink, and that Tierney has been patrolling the parking garage seeing what time employees arrive for work. Despite efforts to manage the financial strain, on February 21, 2009, Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, the subsidiary of Philadelphia Media Holdings that owns the paper, filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company hoped to restructure the US$390 million in debt it borrowed to buy the newspapers, but the end result was that the papers were auctioned off to the company's lenders. The beginning of 2009 also saw the filing of a lawsuit that accused The Philadelphia Inquirer of writing critical stories about Chester Community Charter School's use of public funds after business negotiations between school operator Vahan H. Gureghian and Tierney failed.
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