Philadelphia embraced the “why can’t us” motto in the fall of 2008 as the Phillies headed to their second World Championship. The prospective new owners of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer may have picked up that rallying cry in announcing Gregory J. Osberg as their incoming publisher.

He grew up in the region, got his publishing start at Chilton and advanced to run Newsweek, and spent the last several years running Buzzwire. Prior to his stint at Newsweek, he headed the sales and marketing operation at CNET. If your mission is to drag two dailies and a handful of weeklies into an age where people do everything with their phone, he’d be on your short list of hires.

“Someone has to be the first regional media company to figure out the successful model,” he told the Inquirer. “Why can’t it be us in Philadelphia?”

Both papers seem to think that’s the mission. It’ll be fascinating to watch. As last month’s J-Lab analysis points out, there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration here.

Keep an eye on the concessions the new owners want from the unions. Lots of work rule changes point to innovation; staff cuts, not so much. If they understand what it is that they just bought—a content factory—then they know they can’t continue cutting people who create quality content.

Tags: content factory, inquirer, osberg, Philadelphia, philadelphia daily news