Philly.com May Charge For Web Site

The owner of Philly.com tells Fox 29 his Web site will probably charge for its services by the end of 2009.

Brian Tierney was on Good Day Philadelphia to talk about the 180th anniversary of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

But the conversation quickly turned to the future of the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, the three properties run by Philadelphia Media Holdings.

He told "Good Day Philadelphia," by year end he expects his company to start charging customers for access to Phiily.com.

"I think by the end of this year we'll starting doing what a lot of other newspapers are looking at doing and charging something for it,” Tierney said. “We can’t spend $53 million on newsroom costs and give it away on the back door in terms of things. There will be a small charge for that.”

When asked by Fox 29’s Steve Keeley when such a charge would go into effect, Tierney said “by the end of the year.”

Tierney also said he plans to take on Google over the possibly getting money from Google for Philadelphia Media Holdings content that resides on the search engine’s site.

Tierney discarded a move to an online-only product, saying that his company needed print journalists to be profitable. He also said he expected to be printing newspapers for the next 20 years.

Tierney said 1.6 million people buy the Sunday edition of the Inquirer, and another 1 million read it online.

"We're going to charge you something for that and I think we have the value there that people would be willing to pay."

Along with many other newspapers, the Inquirer is struggling for survival and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. It owes $300 million to investors.

Tierney was optimistic about his locally owned company.

“The company itself made $36 million last year. We are one of the most profitable newspapers in the country,” Tierney said.