The Inquirer’s board named attorney Lisa Kabnick as its new chair as Josh Kopelman finished term

Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman is stepping down as chairman of The Inquirer’s board after reaching his term limit in the position, the news organization announced Tuesday, and will be succeeded by fellow board member and corporate finance attorney Lisa Kabnick.

Kopelman led the board for eight years, overseeing a period of change during which the news organization made a transition to nonprofit ownership as it tried to navigate the continued decline of print advertising, hired its first female publisher in Lisa Hughes, faced a racial reckoning over staff diversity and coverage of communities of color, and adjusted to an era of remote and hybrid work amid the pandemic.

The board’s elevation of Kabnick, 68, amounts to a bet on continuity. A retired partner at Pepper Hamilton LLP, now known as Troutman Pepper, she has served as vice chair of the board alongside Kopelman since 2016.

The board on Tuesday also elected Kopelman to a three-year term as chair emeritus, the company said in a statement. Keith Leaphart, who has been a board member since 2015 and who is chief health equity and community impact officer at Thomas Jefferson University, was named vice chair.

The leadership change comes as The Inquirer and other news outlets try to generate more revenue from digital subscriptions even as they confront new challenges like Google’s overhaul of its search engine, which publishers fear could reduce traffic to their websites. The Inquirer now has 98,000 paid digital subscribers, according to a company spokesperson.

Neither Kopelman nor Kabnick was available for an interview, according to the company spokesperson.

In a statement, Kabnick pointed to the legacy of former Inquirer owner H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, the late philanthropist and cable television entrepreneur who donated The Inquirer in 2016 to a nonprofit that is now known as the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

“Gerry Lenfest recognized the imperative of sustaining independent local journalism in Philadelphia. He said it was his most important legacy,” Kabnick said. “Following Josh’s leadership during his tenure as chair, and with the commitment of our other dedicated directors and everyone at The Inquirer, I am honored to assume the responsibility entrusted to me by our community.”

In the past few years The Inquirer has tried to reduce costs as it seeks to build a sustainable business model — closing and selling its Montgomery County printing plant and laying off 500 workers there while shifting production to a contractor, outsourcing its customer service operations, and laying off some newsroom employees.

Since 2016, the number of Inquirer employees represented by the NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia has declined from 345 to 223, according to the union. Over the last four years, 78 Guild members across the company — spanning not just the newsroom but also advertising and other departments — have accepted buyouts and six have been laid off.

The company has continued to hire new employees over that time period, most of them Guild members. A spokesperson said specific numbers were not available.

“My members are repeatedly reminded of our industry’s challenges, most recently through layoffs and buyouts that resulted in the loss of nearly 40 employees since February,” said Guild president Diane Mastrull.

“I continue to hope for a board that doesn’t opt for job eliminations as a business strategy but rather champions The Inquirer brand and recruits managers who have a creative vision and a commitment to delivering indispensable journalism in whatever form the region wants it,” Mastrull said.

Hughes, The Inquirer’s publisher and CEO, highlighted the board members’ “shared commitment to the maintenance of a free press” and said she looked forward to working with them “to ensure the long-term sustainability of The Inquirer.”

In her law practice, Kabnick specialized in executing corporate finance transactions. Kabnick and her husband, lawyer John H. McFadden, have long been active in Philadelphia civic circles. They have served on the boards of the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Barnes Foundation.

Kopelman, 53, joined The Inquirer’s board in 2015 when the company was known as Philadelphia Media Network. He was named chairman the following year, succeeding Lenfest.

Lenfest endowed the institute with millions of dollars to help support local news, at The Inquirer and elsewhere. While The Inquirer is owned by a nonprofit, the newspaper remains a for-profit business. It is a “public benefit corporation,” meaning the public interest is core to its mission.

In a statement, Kopelman cited “significant accomplishments we have overseen” including recruiting new leadership; consolidating The Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com newsrooms into one; prioritizing the digital product; diversifying the newsroom; and “continuing to produce award-winning journalism.”

“The work — and the need for continued innovation — is not finished, and Lisa Kabnick is the person to lead the board to ensure The Inquirer remains in business for another 195 years,” he said.

The Inquirer’s board of directors is responsible for key operational decisions, such as hiring the publisher. The newsroom operates independently. At times, board members have been the subject of coverage by the newspaper.

For example, Kopelman, founder and partner at First Round Capital, drew attention last year when he contributed $50,000 to a super PAC that ran TV ads opposing Helen Gym, a progressive former City Council member, in Philadelphia’s Democratic primary for mayor. In response to criticism from Gym at the time, Kopelman said that board members “have no oversight or influence on The Inquirer’s editorial content or news coverage” and that he was “proud to support Philadelphia by advocating for the leaders who I believe will benefit our communities.”

Last fall, Kopelman wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he considered resigning from the board after The Inquirer published an editorial cartoon that he said portrayed “Israel as an aggressor against a ‘meek’ Hamas.”

After the paper’s editorial board apologized for publishing the illustration — which it said “reinforces pernicious antisemitic tropes about Israeli aggression” — Kopelman said he appreciated the mea culpa but wanted to speak publicly because he’d “heard that my silence has been interpreted by some as a passive endorsement.”

“Despite its failures, I still believe in The Inquirer’s mission and leadership,” he wrote. “And I believe that The Inquirer will have a better chance of taking additional steps towards combating antisemitism if I remain.”