Save The Beacon Rally

A large crowd gathered along High Street for the Save the Beacon Rally sponsored by the Akron Newspaper Guild Tuesday night.

Speakers include John Wagner, secretary-treasurer of the Tri-County Labor Council, Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville; Summit County Council members Tom Teodosio and Tim Crawford; John Logue, director of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University; former Congressman Tom Sawyer who is running for the 13th District Congress seat; Bernard Lunzer, secretary-treasurer of the Newspaper Guild, CWA; and Mayor Don Plusquellic.

Teodosio announced the unanimous passage of a resolution of support by the County Council. Mayor Plusquellic said City Council will take similar action next Tuesday. Plusquellic also announced that the presidents of the Chamber of Commerce and the University of Akron will join him in sending a message to McClatchy urging sale of the newspaper to a community responsible entity.

Lunzer announced that a bid was submitted Tuesday by the Guild-endorsed “worker friendly” Yucaipa Cos. for the purchase of the 12 newspapers that are to be sold after the Knight Ridder purchase by McClatchy.

Sawyer told a story of meeting Mary Ridder in Washington and telling her he was not happy with the newspaper tactics of Tony Ridder and she told him that Tony was not her son but her damn nephew–indicating she also was not pleased.

Local Guild officers Andale Gross, Kathy Antionetti and Kymberli Hagelberg were on stage to introduce the speakers and plead for continued support of their cause.

Beacon Journal artists Dennis Balogh and Kathy Hagedorn carried a huge Save The Beacon sign which they had lettered. Others carried small signs printed with slogans in red such as “Keep His Legacy Alive” with a silhouette of John S. Knight and “Keep our Quality Newspaper.”

There were a number of retirees along with current BJ employes in the crowd. Among the faces recognized were former editor Dale Allen and Stuart Warner.

Allen did not speak at the rally but reporter Candace Goforth got a nice quote from him.

“If the people interested in purchasing (the Beacon Journal) are only interested in greed, like the shareholder in Florida who sold out Knight Ridder for a lousy $2 a share, (efforts like) this rally will not be much help," Allen said. “But if the bidder has some concern about this newspaper and this community, it will.”

The story by Goforth and a one-column photo showing Plusquellic with the crowd in the background was published on the Business front along with a nice story by Gloria Irwin on bids made Tuesday for the newspapers.

Click here to read Goforth’s story.

Click here to read Irwin’s story.