Philadelphia news execs got bonuses before bankruptcy

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Top executives of Philadelphia Newspapers received year-end bonuses in December, weeks before the company filed for bankruptcy and reported $395 million in outstanding debt.

Chief Executive Brian Tierney and two others were doing a “very good job” and had not gotten raises since an investor group led by Tierney and others bought the company in 2006, Chairman Bruce Toll told The Associated Press on Monday.

The company operates The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

According to a Philadelphia Magazine blog that broke the story over the weekend, Toll said that Tierney received a $350,000 bonus, and two others $150,000 each. On Monday, Toll told the AP that he does not remember the amounts.

He conceded that the board approved the bonuses — and pay raises that have since been rescinded — despite the company’s bleak financial outlook.

Tierney was awarded a $232,000 raise in December that would have boosted his salary to $850,000, at the same time Vice Presidents Mark Frisby and Richard Thayer were to be bumped to $475,000.

Those raises were rescinded amid an outcry from creditors and union employees who had agreed to give up promised $25-a-week raises.

The $650,000 in reported bonuses would have funded the pay raises for the 565 remaining Guild employees for a year.

The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia believes that other senior managers also received bonuses.