Adding a whale to the scene

David Black, the new boss, is due in town today, so it is time to add a whale to our menagerie of Akron icons. The logo for Sound Publishing, new owner of the Beacon Journal, can be found on the Black Papers Ltd. web site. This new icon from Puget Sound joins Browser, the Beacon Journal mascot; the Goodyear blimp; and the University of Akron mascot Zippy, pictured here in the latest stainless steel version which reigns at McDonald’s on Exchange Street.

Also today we would like to join BJ columnist David Giffels in toasting assistant news editor Ted Schneider and copy editor Chuck Montague for 35 or more years of BJ service and metro editor Doug Oplinger, columnist Jewell Cardwell, editorial writer Steve Hoffman and artist Dennis Earlenbaugh for 30 years. They were honored at a newsroom luncheon in the John S. Knight meeting room. In earlier times their service would have been heralded in a glossy employee publication and at a big banquet with former honorees. High postage, printing and dining costs put an end to that so past honorees, now retired, do not hear about it. Kathy Kochanski was putting out an electronic newsletter to keep us up to date but that too apparently has fallen victim to cost cutting demanded by Wall Street.

Click on the headline to read the Giffels column which concluded that after months of frustration over the sale Knight Ridder he may quit hearing about JSK turning over in his grave. May the old boss now rest in peace.

And perhaps a new Black Knight can fend off Wall Street.