Jim Carney leaves home for his
final day at the Beacon Journal

Jim Carney’s BJ farewell post

BJ reporter Jim Carney, among five Guild newsroom members who got the BJ buyout, posted this Facebook farewell:

“I am leaving the paper tomorrow after 35 years. It is a very scary and beautiful thing. 

“I loved my job. Honestly, I could never have worked anywhere else for so long. Too much ADD or ASS, as my dear sister in law Alice calls it - Attention Surplus Syndrome.

"Too much focosity, as my Dad would say.

"Took a buyout with four other Guild members and one manager at the paper.

"It is time. Mesh cap time. Hopefully, we saved some jobs.

"Dear KT remains. She is happy as a clam, doing food stories.

"I loved every minute of the work and am looking forward to jumping out of the plane and seeing where I land. I was blessed to have met so many beautiful folks and heard amazing stories that still break my heart and inspired me and worked with wonderful people in a dream job.

"I saw much and learned much. Hope to travel a bit with a certain band.

"Gentlemen, start your engines."

KT, of course, is Jim’s wife, BJ reporter Katie Byard. The “certain band” is The Black Keys, with Jim’s son, Patrick Carney, and Patrick's former Firestone High classmate Dan Auerbach, and their truckload of awards including annual Grammys.

Jewell Cardwell,  Bill Lilley, Dave Scott and Olga Reswow are the other Guild members chosen for the buyouts, among about a dozen who filled out the paperwork.

That drops the Newsroom staff to 60 or fewer, less than one-third the total in 2001 before the carnage began.

One exempt (management-level) buyout also was accepted, chief editorial writer Laura Ofobike.

The BJ lost more than 1,000 years of BJ service in the previous exits in 2001, 2006 and 2008, and that doesn’t include the years that the expatriates spent in newspapers before coming to the BJ.