That is...a very Norcross-inoffensive piece that covers Philadelphia corruption far more than it touches New Jersey. And that is precisely the type of coverage that political bosses all over the country want: not ignoring, but not threatening. He has nothing to gain by the Inquirer going the way of the NY Post.
As for JVD, this rather silly op-ed is the most critical piece on his party switch that I was able to find.
Not sure what that last sentence means, the Inquirer probably has the second-highest influence over South Jersey of any media outlet after Fox News (which probably has a solid plurality in most of the country).
It's a local newspaper in the year 2020 which has been in a state of financial calamity for the last few decades, been sold multiple times (including by Norcross), barely has any opinion staff writers, and is less used in South Jersey than nj.com and 101.5, let alone national outlets. Like they've started even cutting sportswriters - including Eagles writers - because of financial issues.
Also, the Norcross stuff on the paper just sounds kind of like a conspiracy theory? As far as I'm aware, has no connection to Norcross and he hasn't owned it in six years - in fact, he
lost an auction for the paper back then to a guy, by all accounts, who hated his guts - to the extent that he sued Norcross when he
fired an editor during their co-ownership and
launched a PR war against him. It's now owned by a foundation which Katz's business partner (who fwiw also seemed to hate Norcross) set up, and maybe Norcross has some influence over that, but as far as I'm aware, there's nothing to indicate it. And considering that Norcross started his own
local news site that's still run by his daughter after the auction mess, I don't know why he'd be bothering with the Inquirer now.
Even beyond the ownership drama, when you search up "george norcross philadelphia inquirer", you get:
Maybe I underrate Norcross's political acumen and he's playing some version of 4D chess, but to have a newspaper you control run an investigative story against you, call you an autocrat and kleptocrat in a headline, and write flattering profile of the woman who's apparently made it her life mission to take you down is an interesting choice of tactics.
