Tower Topics 23 years ago

Here’s a story published in the the May, 1984 Tower Topics
from the new ediitor--Sarah Vradenburg

Welcome to the re-premiere of Tower Topics.

While we're on the subject of welcomes, I want to thank everyone here for the warm welcome extended me when I started in March. It was clear that more of you knew about me than I knew about you, and you seemed genuinely glad I had arrived.

The Beacon Journal's reputation for hospitality is well-deserved.

I want to tell you a little about myself. It's only fair that you know something about the woman whose job it is to tell you about the Beacon Journal.

I came here from a weekly newspaper in Fairlawn where for two years I was a general assignment reporter. I have been a stringer for the Beacon Journal and before that covered the southern suburbs for another weekly newspaper.

I took graduate journalism courses at Kent State University and currently exist in that state of academic limbo called All But Thesis.

I am a native Northern Ohioan. I lived briefly in California but, among other things, found that a rain-soaked childhood makes one intolerant of drought. I also found that it is people who really constitute an environment, and that the people here are as good as people anywhere, often better.

Which gets us to the subject of people-in this case, the people who work at the Akron Beacon Journal. You are the reason I am here.

The last issue of Tower Topics was published in November. It is my job to revive the magazine so that all 754 of us know what other Beacon Journal employees are doing, what is new with Knight-Ridder Corporation and, from time to time, what is going in on in the newspaper industry.

In the short time I have been here I have learned some valuable lessons:

(1) Mine is not a desk job, which translates to a need to invest in a comfortable pair of walking shoes.

(2) The people here are more than their jobs. In this issue alone sa you will read of pressmen who are artists and editors and reporters who teach.

(3) The commitment to quality is obvious. For those whose awards are detailed elsewhere, their high standards are apparent and have been recognized. For others, excellence simply is a part of the job. As in all human endeavors, absolute perfection can be elusive, but it is a pleasure to work with professionals.


The total adds up to a multifaceted gathering of newspaper professionals and craftsmen all working to put out a good newspaper, day after day after day. When I realize that 128 of you have been doing that for at least 25 years, (one of you has been here for 50 years), and that this newspaper has been published for 145 years, things fall into perspective.

This publication will change in appearance, content and focus over the next few months. It will showcase our talents and interests, provide information about ourselves and about the industry of which we are a part.

And it will be done with a sense of humor.

After all, people who spend their working lives publishing an award winning daily newspaper deserve the same quality publication of their own with a chuckle now and then.

So here's looking at you, kids.