Kavanagh headed to CNN in Atlanta

Veteran copy editor and former copy desk chief Jim Kavanagh is headed to CNN.com in Atlanta.

Here is Jim’s report:

My last day at the Beacon is Friday the 13th of October. I start at CNN on Nov. 6. In my position as a web writer, I will draw on information from wire services, CNN reporters and affiliate stations and crystallize it into news stories to be posted on the web site. I'll write my own headlines, choose and crop photos, write the cutlines, and find related stories and video and create links to them. Once in a blue moon they might have me do some original reporting and earn a byline.

This is a great fit for me because I get to keep doing copy editing work that I'm good at, I get to write again for the first time in 20 years, and I don't have to do the reporting, which I always hated back in the day. I will also be concentrating on national, world and political stories, which are interesting to me, and not have to pay for it by editing recipes and lists and cop blotters.

When it looked as if I might be laid off, I thought a lot about getting out of the business, but it's kind of in my blood. My dad was a copyboy and cub reporter at the Detroit News before moving on to other things, and his father was a reporter and city editor at the News in the 1920s and '30s. My dad's maternal grandfather owned a print shop in Bay City, Mich., and founded the Bay City Democrat newspaper. But I can't say it was inevitable that I would go into this business; I have 10 siblings who didn't.

I started at the Beacon on the last day of 1991 (earning double time on Day 1 and adding a year to my vacation seniority!) after five years at Knight-Ridder's Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel. Joette Riehle made me deputy copy desk chief in 1992, and I became chief in October 1999. I resigned as chief and returned to the rim in 2005; I was planning to go to grad school and knew I couldn't devote enough time to it if I stayed in management. I haven't started grad school yet, but I have been teaching a copy editing class at Kent State, which I will now have to hand off to someone. (Any takers out there?)

There's a whole spiritual side to this story that I'm not telling in this space, but maybe someday I'll take a run at it. God bless Beaconites everywhere. I'm praying for you.

Jim

Blogger End Note: Kavanagh pushes our wall of honor total to 15 volunteers with 270 years of service. Check out the wall.