Daily News to be labeled edition of Inquirer; no change to content, staff

The Daily News will soon be printed as an edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, though the two papers will maintain separate news staffs and still compete for stories, officials of Philadelphia Media Holdings, which owns both papers announced yesterday.

Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney said the change will save money on wire services by allowing the publications to act as a single subscriber, and will be helpful in selling advertising.

"Instead of telling advertisers we have 330,000 circulation (at the Inquirer) plus the Daily News, it will help to say we have 440,000 daily circulation," Tierney said.

The Daily News will continue to be publish as a tabloid and will be sold separately, both to home subscribers and in street sales. "It's not going to be combined. It's not going to be changed," Tierney said.

For the two papers to be regarded as a single publication by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which monitors newspaper sales, the phrase "an edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer" will appear under the Daily News logo on the front page. The change takes effect March 30.

Daily News editor Michael Days said readers of the paper will keep getting the product they're used to.

"Nothing is going to change about our passionate voices, about how we do what we do," Days said. "We'll be a unique edition of the Inquirer, and the emphasis is on the unique."

Although the change comes just a week after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Daily News publisher Mark Frisby said the change has been under consideration for about a year.