Frisby now Daily News publisher

Mark J. Frisby, a Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C. executive and former publisher of the Courier Post, was named publisher of the Philadelphia Daily News yesterday.

Brian Tierney, chief executive officer of Philadelphia Media Holdings, owner of the Daily News, Inquirer, and Philly.com, announced Frisby's new job during a newsroom meeting with staff members. Until Frisby's appointment, Tierney served as publisher of both daily papers; he will continue in that role for The Inquirer.

Frisby, 46, has served as executive vice president of operations for Philadelphia Media Holdings for the last six months, and is in charge of production, circulation, labor relations, and other aspects of the business - jobs he said he would continue to perform. He joined the company after a five-year stint as president and publisher of the Courier Post, where he started in 1987 as a district manager in circulation.

Speaking to the Daily News' staff, Frisby praised the paper as "one of the few newspapers in the country" to cut across traditional boundaries of race, gender and age.

Frisby and Tierney said they shared a goal of rebuilding the Daily News' circulation, which the paper's staffers have frequently complained is hampered by its role as a stepchild to the larger Inquirer.

Frisby said a key initiative will be building the paper's home-delivery circulation, in part by promoting joint subscriptions with The Inquirer.

After briefly peaking above 300,000 a day in the early 1980s, Daily News circulation has fallen to about 113,000 a day.

"My goal for the Daily News is to have 150,000 circulation," Tierney told staffers.