WHYY’s Bill Hangley just filed this story which will air on WHYY 91FM tomorrow:

The Phillies run to the World Series has already produced one local winner: the company that owns the city’s two largest daily newspapers. Officials at Philadelphia Media Holdings say daily sales are up 20 percent or more.

Brian Tierney knew this was a sports-mad region when he bought the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News two years ago. A scene in his local convenience store quickly proved the point.

“Somebody bought the Inquirer, bought his coffee, and he gave the guy everything back except the sports section. And I’m thinking, gee, don’t you want to read the rest of the paper, there’s so many interesting things in there,” said Tierney.

“But then again, for that person, if it’s worth 75 cents to read the sports section, I’m happy for him, because his coffee cost a buck fifty, and his Sizzli sandwich was probably two seventy.”

Tierney said he’s selling about 30,000 extra newspapers each day. And while he hopes the new readers stick around, one ex-newspaper editor says they probably won’t.

Zack Stalberg, former editor of the Philadelphia Daily News and current head of the good government watchdog group the Committee of Seventy, recalled that circulation at the Daily News soon came back to earth after jumping during the 76ers 2001 run to the NBA finals. He’d advise Tierney to make hay while the sporting sun shines.

“I would probably do it day after day,” said Stalberg, “and they’re going to have some interesting decisions to make here, in terms of how they display World Series stories vs. the most important presidential election in anybody’s memory. If they want to sell papers, it’s probably the Phillies.”