Ed Rendell has made a new arch nemesis in his bid to buy the Philadelphia Media Network (PMN), parent company of The Inquirer and Daily News. Major real estate developer and owner of just about everything (including the The Inquirer’s current office building), Bart Blatstein, has revealed he’s interested in acquiring the company.
To compete with Rendell’s League of Investors, Blatstein has formed his own group, Philadelphia Hometown Media LLC. In a recent interview, Blatstein made the following statement, “We believe that these papers can be turned around… It’s very important to the city and to us.”
A spokesperson for the PMN has denied that they’re in talks with Blatstein’s group, but, then again, they also just censored a post from the Daily News regarding the mogul’s bid for the paper, instead redirecting to this general statement:
A Philadelphia Media Network spokesman today confirmed that the company is not in discussions with Bart Blatstein or the group calling itself Philly Homegrown Media to buy the company that publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com.
Management may have pulled the article because it estimated the company’s worth at under $40 million, a paltry figure compared to the $100 million asking price. But an article on Jim Romenesko’s blog speculates that Philadelphia Media Network CEO Greg Osberg may have ties with Ed Rendell’s group of investors, and, therefore, a vested interest him winning the bid for the PMN.
Should Blatstein take ownership of the company, he would undoubtedly be one of Philadelphia’s most powerful players, and by my count, that would make him Philly’s Lex Luthor. Think about it for a second; the guy already owns Northern Liberties, basically, and with his presumably endless funds, I’m sure he could artificially induce an earthquake to flood Penn’s Landing and turn Northern Liberties into precious riverfront property.
Source: NewsWorks, Jim Romenesko
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Chris Lipczynski
