Marimow Predicts 'Painful' Cuts At 'Philadelphia Inquirer'

By: Joe Strupp Incoming Philadelphia Inquirer Editor William Marimow told his new staff Wednesday that cuts are likely at the legendary paper, but promised that the daily would continue to provide quality news, although more of it local, the Inquirer reported Thursday.

"With the paper facing a costly fall in national advertising and tough union contract talks with a Nov. 30 deadline, Marimow warned of 'painful' staff cuts and narrower horizons at a paper that has prided itself on its national and foreign coverage as well as in-depth local reporting," the paper reported.

"We have to figure out how to thrive in an era of reduced resources," the Inquirer quoted Marimow as telling staffers during a meeting shortly after he was announced as the new editor, replacing Amanda Bennett.

Publisher Brian Tierney, whose Philadelphia Newspaper Holdings purchased the former Knight Ridder property last summer, has said that up to 150 of the paper's 415 Inquirer newsroom jobs could be cut. The Inquirer quoted him as saying "it doesn't have to be that bad" if union leaders offer concessions during the current bargaining sessions.

"I need some breathing room," Tierney told the paper. Other givebacks he is considering include a freezing of pensions for newsroom, advertising and circulation workers. The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, which represents most employees, has opposed the freeze.

Marimow, who plans to start the week of Nov. 27, also called for "excellent" and "indispensable" competitive journalism - online, audio and print, the paper reported. But he stressed that the paper's focus will be local, telling the Inquirer "we will no longer be sending battalions of staffers to cover news like Hurricane Katrina and the war in Baghdad."

The new editor also revealed that he had been seeking work at the Inquirer, where he was on staff for 20 years and won two Pulitzer Prizes, in a letter to Tierney this past summer "after viewing the Philadelphia-centered movie 'Invincible,' and that discussions progressed from that contact," the paper added.