"As of now, this great news organization is locally owned," Brian Tierney, chief executive officer of Philadelphia Media, said yesterday afternoon from a dais crowded with his fellow investors, to sustained applause from a group of newspaper managers and staff.
At 10 last night, Tierney and several of the investors threw a party - sandwiches and Tastykakes - at the Schuylkill Printing Plant near West Conshohocken, where investor Patricia Imbesi threw the copper switch to start the press run. They greeted workers and managers as they came on shift.
"We're going to show the world," Tierney told a group of pressmen and paper handlers. "This is going to be the best news organization in America. You don't have to worry about the corporate thing."
"Like with all new beginnings, I'm hoping we can move on and good things will happen," said Roger DeCicco, shop steward for Teamsters Local 169, which represents 24 newsprint handling workers. "I'm looking forward to working with the local guys."
Later, there were no speeches to hear over the din as Imbesi stood with Tierney and co-owners Leslie A. Brun and William A. Graham IV. As she threw the switch to start the papers winding rapidly along the overhead track system, a delegation of Mummers from the Hegeman String Band broke into "Alabama Jubilee."
"It's great. It's new life," said Phil DeFlorio, vice president of Teamsters Local 1414, which represents 500 mailers. Secretary-treasurer Mike Bernstein said he was looking forward to contract negotiations, which begin in two weeks.
