Brian Tierney

Brian Tierney is the Chief Executive of Philadelphia Media Holdings, the company which owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

Tierney, a public relations and advertising executive, was profiled in Philadelphia Weekly just before he took control of the pepers. As a PR man, "when reporters called his customers," Tierney "called the reporters -- and their editors." 

Reviewing Tierney's often-heated arguments with reporters on their coverage of the Philadelphia Orchestra, banking executives, and -- most infamously -- the Catholic Church, Steve Volk writes, "The most disconcerting thing about his taking control of the [Philadelphia] Inquirer and Daily News may not even be Tierney's noted conservative tilt, which is considerable. ... What really has some people quaking is Tierney's unique diet, which for a time included journalists. For breakfast, lunch and dinner." Former Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano, whose story on the Catholic Diocese's questionable spending was squashed by the newspaper after Tierney's repeated contacts, said of Tierney, "He doesn't understand what reporters do, and more important, he doesn't think it should be done."