The newest investor in a local group seeking to win The Inquirer at auction is tough in business and generous in charity - and Philadelphia through and through.
Raymond G. Perelman, 92, whose name adorns buildings on city institutions ranging from the Art Museum to the Kimmel Center, confirmed his involvement Monday.
Perelman's son, the wealthy financier Ronald O. Perelman, owner of Revlon cosmetics and the former husband of movie star Ellen Barkin, also is investing.
"Why don't you wait and see if we get it?" the elder Perelman said Monday, after picking up the phone at his Rittenhouse Square penthouse and at first disinclined to answer questions. "I'm a little superstitious. I don't want to get too much publicity and not have it happen."
Perelman said he decided to invest in the effort to buy The Inquirer and its sister companies because "I think it's a sleeping giant. I love to read the paper. It's a good investment, and I think I would enjoy being part of it."
He predicted that the fortunes of the paper, going on auction Tuesday along with the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, would rise as the national economy strengthened.
"I'm happy to be involved," he said. "It's a good group of people. David Haas is a super guy, a super guy. I'm on the board of the museum with him."
Haas, an heir to the Rohm & Haas fortune, is among a local investor group that includes the Carpenters Union pension fund and William A. Graham, chief executive officer of insurance broker the Graham Co.
Bruce E. Toll, vice chairman of giant homebuilder Toll Bros. Inc., is also said to be part of the group, but at a lower stake than previously stated.
Haas, chairman of the William Penn Foundation, has taken a keen interest, not only in traditional media, but also in new and emerging nonprofit models of ownership and funding.
Efforts to reach him yesterday were unsuccessful.
Robert J. Rosenthal, a former editor of The Inquirer who now runs the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) in Berkeley, Calif., said Haas' interest in media runs deep.
"If this happens, and he becomes involved in The Inquirer, it'll be a really positive step for The Inquirer and the whole region," Rosenthal said. "He's very much forward-looking, but also understands the traditional values of really high-quality journalism."
