From Philly.com:
Brian P. Tierney says he thinks he and his fellow local investors have what it takes to attract more advertisers and readers to the region’s biggest newspapers.
While the newspaper industry has been struggling locally and nationally, Tierney sees The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News as must-buys – the most important mass media in the market – for many advertisers. He sees plenty of advertising potential in Philly.com, the Internet site his group bought along with the two newspapers. And he sees a company that has not done enough to market itself.
An investor who started his career in public relations and then branched into advertising, Tierney said yesterday that, as an adman, he sold lottery tickets, gasoline, yellow pages, electricity, health insurance and bank products. “Now we’re going to sell newspapers and we’re going to sell a lot of newspapers,” he said.
Tierney Communications is one of Philly’s biggest ad agencies, though I’m not sure Tierney himself is still involved with them. But do you think recommending ad buys in the Enquirer will be a focus point of the agencies’ media plans from now on? And should more advertising agencies buy media vehicles to ensure there’s an outlet for their clients?
Brian Tierney sold his share of Tierney Communications a few years back and has no affiliation with it. They name was pretty well established in the area, so the agency kept it. What’s also interesting is that Brian Tierney is a big player with both the Republican Party and the Catholic Church, while the Inquirer (and the city of Philadelphia in general) historically leans left.