Warner proposal to Knight Foundation

Proposal of Stuart Warner to the Knight Foundation urging purchase of Beacon Journal:
[Warner cc his proposal to many via e-mail urging them to pass it along]]

Alberto Ibargnen
President and CEO
The Knight Foundation
Miami, FL

Mr. Ibargnen:

The Knight name must not disappear from daily journalism. I spent 29 years in Knight-Ridder, 19 in Akron, where I was fortunate enough to work on two Pulitzer-winning projects. I also learned to revere the name and what it stood for - outstanding journalism. Now, with the sale of Knight-Ridder, the Knight Foundation has the opportunity at least to save one proud vestige of the Knight family's former newspaper empire.

The foundation can buy the family's original paper, the Akron Beacon Journal, and turn it into the model for journalism in the 21st century the way the Knights once made it a model for journalism in the 20th century.
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I admire the Knight Foundation's work in promoting journalism, but this is a chance to do so much more than award fellowships and chairs, fund research and academic study and facilitate other good work within the communities you serve.

This is an opportunity to create a living journalism laboratory much as the Poynter Foundation has done in St. Petersburg. And even go beyond that. The Knights were as smart on the business side as they were on the news side. A Knight Foundation operation in Akron could explore new methods of distribution, alternative advertising structures, combine print, online, and other multi-media resources, etc..

I understand that Akron has been written off as a no-growth market by the McClatchy organization, though I doubt its leaders spent much time there. It has a vibrant downtown that sits in the middle of a soon-to-be-completed, 112-mile national historic corridor that can bring thousands of visitors through the city daily. It has prosperous suburbs - though I no longer work at the paper, I still live just outside the city. And most of all, it has an audience that was raised on the solid values of Knight journalism and appreciates the kind of strong media voice the Knight Foundation could
produce there.

I realize this is a longshot, but I hope you will consider preserving the Knight tradition in Akron.

I was fortunate enough to meet the brothers, and I'm certain that they, more than anybody, gladly would have spent their money that way.

Stuart Warner
Writing Coach/Enterprise Editor
The Plain Dealer
Cleveland, OH

cc: James Crutchfield

HIS THOUGHTFUL REPLY

Dear Mr. Warner,

Thanks for your heartfelt message, which I think I understand very well.

Your proposal has been made by others - and as to other Knight papers, as well. There would be many obstacles, but I will certainly share your message with others at Knight Foundation.

Thank you.

Alberto Ibargnen