1978 Called. It Wants Its Newspaper Back

Some employee disputes are headed to court, and Tierney is also facing a lawsuit from billboard and Chester Community Charter School entrepreneur Vahan H. Gureghian. In that suit, Gureghian claims a series of critical Inquirer stories was triggered by business talks with Tierney that ultimately went nowhere. The libel suit figures to claim the most media attention, but another filing that deals more directly with life at 400 North Broad Street was made in January by Lourdes Hudson, a former advertising department manager and now the plaintiff in a sex discrimination suit against Philadelphia Media Holdings.

The suit alleges that Hudson wasn’t paid bonus money due her in April 2007, though all eligible male co-workers did receive the bonus. Hudson complained, and alleges that her complaint led to her subsequent demotion and termination that December. She received no severance, her suit alleges, though male employees let go around the same time did. The suit paints a portrait of the newspapers as a “boys club,” and alleges that Hudson “experienced, observed and was made aware of sex discrimination experienced by other female employees. … ”

For the first time, advertising salespeople are perhaps in even greater danger of being laid off than editorial staff. One current sales rep says that in 2006, the classified department still had 40 salespeople. Today, there are 20, including managers. “We were having cakes all the time,” says the salesperson. “Sometimes two per day, because so many people were leaving.”

The shocking part of Tierney playing hardball with his own employees is how recently he had cast the industry’s challenges in glowing terms. Early on, he referred to the Internet more as his boon companion than as a thug stealing his lunch money. He credited online readership with generating more interest in his newspapers’ content, without belaboring the Internet’s role as a revenue-suck. And he banged away at television news for losing audience at a far faster rate than newspapers, which is a bit like claiming first place in a world’s tallest midget contest.

This is, no doubt, a way of looking at the world that he honed climbing to the top of the local ad game. Former colleagues in advertising describe Tierney as an unrepentant optimist. “If someone said, ‘We can’t do it,’” says former partner Alison Grove, “Brian’s response was always, ‘Why not?’ He would find a way to get it done.”

Tierney’s first big move into Philadelphia business circles came in 1989, when he fled his position at Lewis, Gilman & Kynett, Inc., then the largest ad agency in the city, and started his own firm, the Tierney Group, at the tender age of 31. Mary Stengel Austen accompanied Tierney to his start-up. She remembers an early meeting to decide on a pricing structure. “We need to look at what everyone else is charging,” Tierney said, “and charge our clients $15 an hour more.”

“That’s crazy,” said Stengel Austen.