Tierney looks to life outside of newspapers

Brian P. Tierney leaves the white tower today. He is the first to admit it won't be easy.

"I'm looking at a lot of opportunities that could be exciting," he said this week from the 12th-floor conference room in the distinctive ivory edifice that houses The Inquirer. "But frankly nothing is going to match the last four years."

The last four years, of course, represent his tumultuous term as chief executive officer of Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C., parent company of The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com.

It is a term that ends when he gives up his office and title as CEO today in advance of surrendering the company to its new owners later this summer. He will remain publisher of The Inquirer until sale closing, but his day-to-day role in the company is finished.

For Tierney, a native of Upper Darby and a graduate of Episcopal Academy, University of Pennsylvania, and Widener University law school, his time as CEO, by many measures, could be rated a success.

Both newspapers have produced standout journalism; the Daily News won a Pulitzer Prize this year. Philly.com has grown impressively. Company ad sales, while struggling, have at least rivaled industry leaders in a tough environment. (Circulation was a struggle as well, with The Inquirer's Sunday numbers falling from 705,965 to 517,807.)

Then there is the bankruptcy.

At the end of the day, what most will remember is the inability to cover $318 million in debts, the bruising 15-month battle with his creditors, and the final dramatic auction that ended with his lenders buying Tierney's prized possession for $139 million.

None of which is lost on the public-relations-executive-turned-newspaper-publisher.

"Until now, I've never been associated with anything but business success," he said, his monogrammed shirt with French cuffs adding emphasis. "The spectacle nature of this has been overwhelming. There are times I'd think this can't be happening to me. You shake your head, hoping you are going to wake up and find it isn't real."

In a rare concession to the weight of the subject, he slowed for a moment. He removed his glasses and wearily rubbed his eyes.

"There has not been 15 minutes over the last two years when I wasn't thinking about the challenges," he continued. "I'd wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the bankruptcy, the battle, what we needed to do to move forward.

"I'd ask myself, 'Why did I ever do this? Why am I the guy who has to lead this paper during this period of its 181-year history?' But then you kind of sit back and say to yourself, 'Whatever, you are that guy, so lead.' "

Resignation does not come naturally to Tierney. Relentless ebullience does. He slips easily back to his default mode: the tenacious pitchman promoting a product of unquestioned primacy.

In this case, it is the company he led.

He ticks off a list of accomplishments: the company's holding its own in ad sales in a tough economy, the website's growth, his warm relationship with most of the company's unions, and what he described as the "buzz" created in the community by the papers and website.

He was particularly proud of the journalism: The Inquirer's investigative series on the Board of Revision of Taxes and the city's courts; the Daily News' Pulitzer Prize for detailing police corruption.

And that brought him to the romance of newspaper work.

"There is nothing like the feeling of walking through the newsroom," he said. "Hearing about what is being worked on. Or going out to the plant and seeing 400,000 papers being printed and the incredible ballet of getting them delivered to 8,500 retailers and hundreds of thousands of driveways.

"And, no disrespect to TastyKake, but we aren't delivering krimpets. We are delivering investigative journalism. We are giving voice to the little guy getting picked on. That is the part that is exhilarating."

Which helps explain why he fought so hard and so long not to lose the papers in bankruptcy. It was ultimately a futile fight that wound up costing more than $30 million in legal and professional fees run up by all the parties involved.

Critics have argued that the same result could have been achieved with less time and money if Tierney had negotiated a settlement with the senior lenders, the hedge funds that held most of the company's debt.

"We tried to cut a deal," he said. "The deal they offered would have left the company with $80 million to $100 million in debt. We wound up with $40 million in debt. That is a home run. This will be a better company going forward because it has less debt than its peers."

For that, he thanked his original investors who put up $150 million in 2006 as a down payment on the $515 million purchase. The investors were an eclectic collection that included Bruce Toll, vice chairman of the home builder Toll Bros. Inc.; William A. Graham 4th, a Philadelphia-based regional insurance broker; Leslie A. Brun, chairman emeritus of Hamilton Lane; and Katherine D. Crothall, former chief executive of Animas Corp., a West Chester maker of medical equipment. Tierney has placed his own investment at $10 million, all lost.

"There was not a single one of our investors who was not incredibly supportive," he said. "Even when it looked like we would have to file for bankruptcy, there was not a single one who said, 'Brian, do what you have to do, gut the place, fire 200 journalists if you need to, to stave off bankruptcy.' "

What comes next for Tierney, 53, is still uncertain.

He is planning a vacation ("I've never taken two weeks off in my life. I think I'd like to try that") and wants to spend time working with his son, Brian, who has a website - Tinderbox.com - that sells tobacco products online.

As for his next position, he said there were some offers he declined to talk about, but nothing is set.

"I'm not going to do anything until this deal closes," he said, which now is targeted for late June or early July. "I think it is important that I help out in any way during the transition period."

He emphasized that last point, underscoring a late attempt to set aside the bitterness of the battle with his lenders.

"I want to really support the new team," he said. "Their success is really going to determine the success of 4,500 people I really care about, the employees of this company."

That dovetails nicely into his hopes for his own future.

"It is important to me that if you saw me walking down the street a year from now, 10 years from now, you would say, 'There goes a good guy.'

" 'There goes a guy who left the company better than when he walked in the door. He didn't to it for himself, he did it for the rest of us. And I respect him.' "