• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 3, 2009

In a cost-saving move, the Philadelphia Daily News will be published under the corporate umbrella of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the sister paper also owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings, according to the company's CEO Brian Tierney.

To economize, the Daily News will henceforth be published as an "edition" of the Inquirer. The announcement comes a week after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it will not be able to make upcoming payments on a debt of about $390 million. Most of that sum was assumed during the deal engineered by Tierney to buy the newspapers from McClatchy in 2006.

Tierney emphasized that the new move will not result in any changes in the appearance, delivery or internal management of the newspaper--portraying it as a purely financial decision that will save money, for example, on wire-service subscriptions. He added that it will also allow sales reps to present advertisers with the larger combined circulation figure for the two newspapers--440,000 versus 330,000 for just the Inquirer alone.

The newspapers will maintain separate staffs, compete journalistically, and be sold separately, both in terms of home delivery subscriptions and newsstand sales, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, the phrase "an edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer" will appear under the Daily News logo beginning March 30, allowing the two papers to be considered a single paper per the rules of the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

This is the latest in a series of extraordinary measures taken by newspaper publishers that are struggling to keep their heads above water. In March, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News-- published by Gannett and MediaNews Group under a joint operating agreement--will cut back home delivery from seven to just three days and two days a week, respectively. The East Valley Tribune in Arizona recently cut back its publication schedule from seven days a week to four.

A number of publishers have asked employees to take unpaid leave. Last week, The Financial Times of London asked employees to take three-day weekends without pay on the extra day. The week before that, Media General said all employees have to take 10 days of unpaid leave in 2009, including four by the end of March. In January, Gannett said it will require thousands of employees to take a week off without pay. A month before that, The Seattle Times asked approximately 500 of its non-unionized employees to take a week's unpaid leave.

Publishers are also forming new content-sharing consortiums that may be long-term threats to the Associated Press. Two weeks ago, five newspapers in New York and New Jersey, including The New York Daily News, unveiled a content-sharing club called the Northeast Consortium. Previously, The Washington Post and Baltimore Sun announced a local content-sharing deal in December. Also, McClatchy Co. is sharing foreign news stories with The Christian Science Monitor. Last year, eight Ohio newspapers formed their own news-sharing service.