Brian Tierney may be the most closely watched newspaper owner in America, but a certain segment of the newspaper-watching population would prefer that he hadn't gotten into the business in the first place.

As a career PR man with a knack for catchy advertising strategies, Tierney's leadership of a group that purchased The Philadelphia Inquirer almost a year ago sent chills up the spines of some journalism purists who feared what he might turn the esteemed, but financially troubled paper ...