Here lies Brian Tierney. He sure was a sweet ol’ bitch. OK, so maybe we shouldn’t bang the funereal drum just yet, but here is the deal: In all likelihood, Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.‘s various properties — which include the Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com — will go up on the auction block next month. And according to this ruling made at the end of last week, PNI’s lenders will be able to bid on them using money they’ve already thrown into PNI. This is a huge development, especially when you consider level of utterly un-sexy media navel-gazing that covering this story has required. What it means is that Tierney has lost the fight; that the half-baked “Keep It Local!” campaign was an utter failure; and that some time in the next two months or so, someone else is probably gonna own all of this stuff, inheriting a raft of problems that make you question just why anyone, corporation or real person, would want it in the first place. And yet, the story has been really, really under-reported. Part of this is because the news broke on Friday (even the 6PM NBC10 news didn’t carry it that day). Another part of it could be the Phillies Phever. And still another part could be that patent un-sexy-ness that has just as much to do with the fact that people just don’t seem to care that the papers (and Philly.com) are likely to change hands again as it does the fact that Chapter 11 stories are woefully boring. Still, it’s surprising. Even the NY Times just gave it a kind of shrug and a “we’ll see.” And this might be the ultimate sting for Tierney: After all of the hoopla surrounding his entrance into PNI, and all the talk about “the future of newspapers,” this new twist in the tale of his demise — media-world handicappers say it’s most likely that former Inky publisher Bob Hall will inherit Tierney’s wind — nobody is even paying attention to the fact that Tierney is pretty much a lame duck as of this decision. Where will he go? What will he do? Does anyone even care anymore? Like the great Bobby Womack once sang, nobody loves you when you’re down and out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 2:52 pm.