Fewer Beacons of Light in Akron

Mary Ethridge grew up with Knight Ridder and with the Akron Beacon Journal, where her father was editor. After the deep cuts in the Beacon Journal's newsroom were announced she decided to take a voluntary layoff thus saving someone else’s job.

Mary provides the lead for a good story by Edward B. Colby in the Columbia Journalism Review Daily. Here’s her reaction as reported by Colby:

"If you cut a quarter of the newsgathering staff and tell the others that remain that you may cut again, how can you possibly motivate people to do their jobs to the best of their abilities?" she asks. "We were already to my mind short-staffed to begin with, and now it's going to be even tougher."

"You feel it already -- you feel the complete vibe changing in the newsroom," says Ethridge, a business columnist. "It's a very surreal atmosphere, 'cause everything's in flux and everybody's upset. It's really devastating."

And so Ethridge is taking a voluntary layoff (thus saving someone else's job) and will move on, "telling people what they need to know" through freelance work, perhaps, at magazines or other newspapers.

"Part of me wanted to stay and fight the good fight," she says, but "another part of me just said, 'You know what, maybe it's just time to move on.'"

"She's very, very talented. Smart. Great writer," veteran columnist Bob Dyer says of Ethridge. "Hard-charging reporter, and she's just had it. She's gonna hang it up. Very discouraging."

Publisher Edward Moss, Editor Debra Adams Simmons, and Managing Editor Mizell Stewart III did not return calls by Colby asking for comment. (Nor did Andale Gross, a reporter who is the unit chair for the Northeast Ohio Newspaper Guild.)

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