Rendell Confirms Interest in Inquirer, Names Partners


Just got off a media conference call with former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Or, rather, the call dropped. (Did the guv hang up on me?!) But before I lost contact, Rendell confirmed that he has been working on building an investor group for the purchase of the Philadelphia Media Network for the last few weeks and that the group currently consists of Ed Snider, Lew Katz, George Norcross, and Krishna Singh, among others. Rendell said he did reach out to John Dougherty, as I reported earlier, but that the union leader has yet to commit. Rendell says that the group submitted something called a “non-binding statement of interest letter” just yesterday, but he declined to discuss numbers with the small group of reporters, which did not include anyone from the Inquirer, a fact that really ticked off the guv. What also seemed to bother him was that any of us knew about this. “There is a confidentiality agreement that has been breached,” noted Rendell. “I have no idea how.” He suggested that publisher Greg Osberg’s job would be safe and that the Daily News wouldn’t be on the chopping block, at least not right away. “We would do everything that we could to keep the Daily News open,” he said. It’s also worth noting that Rendell expressed his hatred for the Giants, when asked by Daily News reporter Dan Gross for a Super Bowl pick while we all sat in awkward silence waiting for an Inquirer reporter to materialize.