Former Inquirer editor William K. Marimow joins Brian Tierney’s marketing and communications agency

Retired Inquirer editor and executive William K. Marimow on Wednesday joined the Philadelphia marketing and public relations firm Brian Communications, headed by Brian P. Tierney, a former owner of the newspaper.

“Joining us as senior advisers will be David Demarest, most recently the head of communications at Stanford University ... and head of White House communications for President George H.W. Bush, as well as our mutual friend and colleague Bill Marimow,” Tierney said in an email.

Tierney, who was publisher of the paper from 2006 to 2010, recruited Marimow to be editor-in-chief. Marimow won two Pulitzer Prizes as a reporter at The Inquirer, one for public service in 1978 and the other for investigative reporting in 1985.

“What I will be doing is working with Brian’s clients on marketing strategies, communications, and how to forge relationships with journalists that will benefit both the media and the clients,” Marimow said Wednesday. “We will help companies be more effective in their communications.”

Tierney said public relations “is less than 20% of our business. Branding, advertising, and social media” make up the bulk of the firm’s work.

Marimow, who also has been a top editor at the Baltimore Sun and NPR, led The Inquirer’s newsroom for a total of eight years between 2006 and 2017.

He first ran the newsroom starting in 2006. The newspaper then began to go through a series of ownership changes, and Marimow was fired in 2010 after hedge funds took control from local investors. Marimow returned to reporting, left the paper in 2011 to teach journalism at Arizona State University, and returned in 2012 as editor.

He was fired again briefly in 2013, a consequence of a dispute among the newspaper’s then-owners. Two of them, Lewis Katz and H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, filed suit and soon brought Marimow back to run the newsroom a third time.

Marimow stepped down as editor in October 2017, and most recently was vice president of corporate strategy for The Inquirer, which is a public benefit corporation owned by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Tierney is a member of The Inquirer’s board of directors.

“Bill Marimow retired from his role as a valued employee of The Inquirer on Dec. 31, 2019, and we wish him well,” said Lauren Kauffman, The Inquirer’s vice president for people and culture.