Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Philadelphia Inquirer was founded on the 1st of June, 1829, by printer John R. Walker and John Norvell, former editor of the Aurora and Gazette. It is the third-longest continuously operating daily newspaper in the United States.
As of 2020, The Philadelphia Inquirer has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes. Seventeen of those were won between 1975 and 1990, during the tenure of executive editor Eugene L. Roberts Jr., including six in consecutive years from 1975 to 1980.
Walter Annenberg owned The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1942 until 1969, when he sold it to Knight Newspapers. His father, Moses L. Annenberg, had purchased the paper in 1936 and held it until his death in June 1942.
Philadelphia Newspapers LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the 21st of February, 2009, carrying approximately $390 million in debt. Much of that debt had been borrowed to acquire The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News in 2006 for roughly $515 million, a price the papers could not sustain as advertising and circulation declined.
The Philadelphia Inquirer is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. In 2016, H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest donated the paper to The Philadelphia Foundation to keep it rooted in the city. As of 2026, the publisher and CEO is Elizabeth H. Hughes and the editor is Gabriel Escobar.
On the 2nd of June, 2020, The Inquirer ran an op-ed under the headline "Buildings Matter, Too." Editors apologized the next day, and on June 4th more than 40 journalists called in sick in protest, citing the paper's failure to report accurately on non-white communities. Executive editor Stan Wischnowski resigned on the 6th of June.