A Black day when David Black bought the BJ

 BJ bankruptcy leaves retirees out in the cold

Merry Christmas? More like bah, humbug!

In short, the sad news from Don Screen of the Chandra law firm in Cleveland is that BJ, through its bankruptcy filing, has left us holding the bag.

Prescriptions. Supplemental medical insurance. The who shebang.

Don’s notification, including that those of us benefitting for 8 years when Chandra won the healthcare lawsuit for us (in my case, it totals $60,000 for the 8 years and my $16,000 reimbursement check for underpaid coverage at the time the lawsuit was settled):

All,

As you know, I attended (via Zoom) a meeting of the Beacon Journal Publishing Company's unsecured creditors on Monday, December 28, 2020. The meeting was hosted by Marc Gertz, the bankruptcy trustee, and was attended by about 10-12 people, including David Black (Chairman of Black Press Media), Rick O'Connor (Black Press President and Chief Executive Officer), Mark Merklin (the BJ's bankruptcy attorney), an attorney for the Teamsters local, some other individuals who did not identify themselves, and a due to a technical glitch on Gertz's end, I was not able to access the Zoom feed until about 25 minutes into the meeting. I was on the phone at the time with Ruth West, though, and she was kind enough to hold her phone up to her computer speaker so I could hear (much of) what was being discussed. The following is based on my limited, and possibly fallible, understanding and recollection of the testimony.

 

The meeting began with Gertz swearing in David Black, who then answered questions from Gertz and other participants under oath. Black testified that Black Press bought the BJ, including its retirement and pension obligations, from McClatchey in 2006 for $165 million in stock and placed it under Sound Publishing Company's ownership. Sound continued to own the  BJ until 2018, when it sold most of the BJ's assets (excluding its building and real estate) to Copley, Ohio Newspapers, which in turn was owned by Gatehouse Media. Also in 2018, the BJ ceased operating the newspaper but continued to collect certain revenues from Gatehouse. It continued to pay retiree pension and health-insurance benefits (including the prescription card) through November 2020. Although it was not entirely clear from what I heard, Sound Publishing appears to have administered and funded these benefits. (This may explain why retirees received healthcare-insurance notices from Sound.) But the obligation to pay claims remained with the BJ, which continued to honor that obligation through November 2020. I also understood that at least the health-insurance and prescription benefits were self-funded. That is, rather than pay premiums to a health-insurance carrier such as United Healthcare, the BJ itself paid healthcare and prescription-drug costs as claims arose.     

 

After suffering through COVID and selling its building in 2020, according to Black, the BJ has no real estate assets. It also has no stocks, bonds, or accounts receivable. The BJ's bankruptcy petition discloses that the company's liabilities total $132,786,223.95 ($76,428,314.95 of which is owed to unsecured creditors), while the company owns only $294,000 in assets. Retirees such as yourselves are listed (by name) as unsecured creditors to whom "$0" is owed.

 

A few other participants asked questions of Black, who frequently deferred to O'Connor. One retiree asked about his $15,000 life-insurance policy, to which Black responded that "there's no money for that." (It occurs to me that retirees who paid for life insurance through the BJ may wish to inquire whether all or any portion of such insurance was "vested" or otherwise remains or has become the obligation of the insurance carrier rather than the BJ. If so then that obligation may survive the BJ's bankruptcy, but I have no way of knowing if that is the case.) 

 

The Teamsters' attorney asked about pension benefits. I followed up on that question and learned from O'Connor that the BJ has applied for transfer of its pension obligations to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (or "PBGC," a government agency that guarantees private pension obligations) but that its application remains "pending" at this time. I believe I understood that pensions would continue to be paid in the interim. You should follow up regularly to learn the current status of the application and of your benefits.

 

Gertz brought up our 2012 class-action settlement in Judge Dowd's court. He read the paragraph from our settlement agreement, which I drafted, requiring the BJ to ensure that any company that buys its assets or stock agrees to assume the BJ's healthcare-insurance obligations as well. When it was my turn to question Black, I followed up on that inquiry by asking whether, at any time between 2012 and the present, the BJ sold a substantial portion of its assets or stock (or transferred its healthcare obligations) to any other entity. I mentioned that, if that had happened, the termination of benefits may suggest that a breach of the settlement agreement has occurred, in which case we could seek to force the purchasing entity to restore the benefits. O'Connor, however, answered that nothing like that had occurred, and that those obligations have remained with the BJ at all times. 

 

I also complained loudly about the BJ's (and Sound's) lack of any notice to retirees about the impending termination of their benefits. I asked (rhetorically) if Black knew how the retirees learned of the termination. Hearing no response, I informed him that they learned when they walked into their local CVS or Walgreens and were advised by their pharmacists that they had no coverage. I added that, while a lucky few discovered the cancellation in time to enroll in Medicare Part D or other private insurance, most were unaware of the issue until after the open-enrollment window closed, are currently without coverage, and will remain so unless they can establish the occurrence of a "qualifying event" that would allow them to enroll now. Both Black and O'Connor appeared befuddled. Black muttered something like "Oh dear, that's not good. That shouldn't have happened." But neither he nor O'Connor were able to explain why it happened, let alone propose to rectify the situation in any way.

 

The sad bottom line appears to be that, while the BJ itself retained the retiree health-insurance obligations (I asked O'Connor for a letter confirming that fact, and he agreed to send me one), it has no assets to continue paying benefits and so will not do so. (Both Gertz and Merklin have advised me independently that, even if the obligations the BJ undertook in our settlement agreement were for some reason not "dischargeable" in the bankruptcy, it wouldn't matter because there would be no money to pay for them anyway.) While this appears to be "the end of the line" for our effort to have your benefits restored, I hasten to add that neither I nor anyone in my firm is a bankruptcy attorney and we simply cannot pronounce authoritatively on these issues. We advise anyone who wishes to challenge or pursue the BJ in this matter to retain the services of a qualified bankruptcy attorney, who should be able to advise whether anything can be done. 

 

I regret to communicate this unfortunate news. We fought hard for you back in 2010-12 and were able to secure coverage for eight years more than the BJ would have been willing to provide it without the lawsuit. Sadly it didn't last for your lifetimes as originally promised. I sincerely hope that you are all able to procure satisfactory coverage at a reasonable cost, and, better yet, that your health will be such that you won't need it. 

 

Happy New Year to all!

 

Don 

 

 

--

Donald Screen
The Chandra Law Firm LLC

The Chandra Law Building
1265 W. 6th Street, Suite 400
Cleveland, OH 44113.1326

 

MANGO NAMED EDUCATION JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

Mango named NABJ Journalism Educator of the Year

Susan Mango Curtis, former BJ assistant managing editor and associate professor of visual arts at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, was named the National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalism Educator of the Year.

 

She left the BJ for Medill in 1997. Mango was involved in the “Question of Color” project that led to another BJ Pulitzer.

 

Mango is a 1981 graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts and a 1977 graduate of Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, Maryland.

 

She lists the Tallahassee (Florida) Democrat on her Facebook resume.

 

“PBS Newshour” White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor was named Journalist of the Year.

BJ FOLKS CREATED A JUNGLE OF OUTSTANDING BOOKS IN 2020

 

Barbara McIntyre’s list of the best Northeast Ohio books in 2020 is loaded with former BJ folks as the authors.

Former BJ artist John Backderf’s “Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio” nonfiction graphic novel.

Former BJ reporter Thrity Umrigar’s “Binny’s Diwali,” about a little girl sharing her favorite holiday with classmates.

Former 1970s State Desk reporter Paula Stone Tucker’s “Surviving: A Kent State Memoir.”

Former BJ columnist David Giffels’ “Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America,” based on questions David asked people about their plans to vote in 2020.

Former BJ sportswriter David Lee Morgan Jr. “The Massillon Tigers” about his year as the high school team’s running back coach.

To read the article, click on https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/book-talk-turning-the-page-back-on-the-best-northeast-ohio-books-in-2020/ar-BB1cgl67

 

THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THE BJ GREAT

 

AKRON'S DAILY MIRACLE LOOKS AT BJ HISTORY

 

Whew! Lot of “Daily Miracle”s out there!

“Akron’s Daily Miracle” is the title of a book compiled from essays by those who worked at the Akron Beacon Journal by Stuart Warner and Debbie Van Tassel.

The title came from an unpublished memoir by the late BJ managing editor Dale Allen.

But you have to be careful that you order the BJ book about “The Daily Miracle.”

I found at least two other books about journalism with “Daily Miracle” in the title:

“The Daily Miracle: An Introduction to Journalism” by William Conley, who did his work in the United Kingdom.

“The Daily Miracle- A Memoir of Newspapering” by C. Frazier Smith, a Baltimore Sun reporter who has a Pulitzer nomination in his history.

The BJ Warners’ title, “Akron Daily Miracle,” is a sort of tribute to Dale Allen, who wrote:

We called our newspaper “the daily miracle,” and there was good reason for that description, even if some of our readers thought otherwise.

They had other names for what we produced.

Some used generic terms, such as rag or yellow sheet or scandal sheet or lining for the bird cage.

Others gave special names to papers serving their communities. In my home town of Joplin, Mo., folks called the morning newspaper “the morning liar” and the evening paper “the evening apology.”

In Raleigh, N.C., readers called the News & Observer “the News & Disturber.”

In Cleveland, when readers wrote about their Plain Dealer they labeled it “the Pee Dee.”

In Kent, Ohio, The Record Courier became “the Wretched Courier.”

And in Akron folks had another name for the Beacon Journal: “The Leaking Urinal.”

(Another one that Dale didn't mention: "The Canton Suppository.")

"But, in my view “daily miracle” still seems an apt description.

Name another business in which a brand new product is put on the assembly line every day, pumped out during our peak years by the hundreds of thousands, then delivered to customers. And not just Monday through Friday, but every day of the week, 365 days a year.

Even after witnessing the miracle firsthand for 40-plus years, my mind still boggles at what we did, in part because of the myriad tasks required to put that newspaper on a subscriber's porch or in their newspaper box each day.

And to do it for a minimal charge of ten cents or a quarter a copy back a few years ago. Even with all the new technology we brought to the table in the latter years of the 20^th century, the work to produce the daily newspaper remains a wonder to behold. 

That's the end of Dale's epic description.

The Warners’ “Akron Daily Miracle” may be purchased at the University of  Akron Press website - -https://blogs.uakron.edu/uapress/product/akrons-daily-miracle/

-- and on Amazon.com for $24.95. 

On the UA Press site former BJ employees can get a 30 percent discount by using the promo code UAP30 and pressing on Apply. 

The book is or soon will be available at Barnes and Noble in Akron.  

As retired BJ columnist Bob Dyer, never at a loss for words (thus his zillion annual designations as Ohio Columnist of the Year), put it:

“Akron's Daily Miracle provides an inside look at the operation of the Beacon Journal from the time John S. Knight (in John Olesky’s view the greatest newspaper owner in American history) died in 1981 to our move into a new building in 2019.

“Twenty-eight Beacon Journal veterans, mostly retired, have contributed, ranging from former Publisher Jim Crutchfield to Your Favorite Columnist, who was asked to write a chapter about how he put together his 2014 investigative series on televangelist Ernest Angley.

“Longtime readers will recognize the names of many of the 28 contributors, including former headliners Regina Brett, Michael Douglas, Mary Ethridge, Glenn Gamboa, Steve Love, Charlene Nevada, Bill O'Connor, Marla Ridenour, Jane Snow and Thrity Umrigar.

“Another local household name, Mark Williamson, penned a chapter about the painful demise of Akron TV station WAKC (Channel 23), and radio reporter-turned-Beacon reporter Jim Carney described the glory days at news station WHLO (640-AM).

“The perfect cover illustration was contributed by Chuck Ayers, a former ABJ cartoonist best known for his work on the comic strips Crankshaft and "Funky Winkerbean.”

So, have at it. But be sure you get the right Daily Miracle.

Not the one involving the loaves and fishes. Lot of miracles floating around in history.

 New hearing date, bankruptcy trustee for BJ case

The date for the remote Akron Beacon Journal bankruptcy hearing has been rescheduled and there’s been a change in the bankruptcy trustee in the case.

The new hearing date is 11 a.m. Monday, December 28 in Northern District of Ohio Federal Court at 2 South Main Street in Akron.

The new interim bankruptcy trustee is:

Marc P. Gertz

Gertz & Rosen, Ltd.

11 S Forge Street

Akron, OH 44304

 

Phone: (330) 255-0727
Email: mpgertz@gertzrosen.com
Fax: (330) 932-2366

 

Gertz teaches bankruptcy law at the University of Akron.

 

Harold Corsin was the previous choice for bankruptcy trustee.

Chandra law firm in Cleveland, which won the healthcare lawsuit against David Black and the Beacon Journal in Federal Judge David Dowd’s court in Akron, is checking how this affects the 5 Guild newsroom and 45 ITU printers retirees who had their healthcare coverage restored to their retirement-day levels.

Many not covered by Judge Dowd’s order, former pressroom, mailers, printers, newsroom reporters and editors, have been notified of their prescription coverage termination by SAV-RX Prescription Services, a national provider of prescription coverage in Fremont, Nebraska that is a subsidiary of A&A Drug Company.

BJ Question of Color Pulitzer winners a Hall of Fame collection

 

What a collection of talent at the BJ for the Question of Color Pulitzer-winning series.

Bob Dyer, Ohio Columist of the Year so often they should have just named it the Bob Dyer Trophy.

Bill O'Connor, who escaped a monastery to become a BJ features writer before landing in the good life in Bath Township as a retiree.

Chuck Ayers, whose Funky Weinerbean impromptu drawing on a styrofoam food container still is in my den.

Derf, Jeffrey Dahmer's friend, who still makes fascinating waves into our minds.

Yuvonne Bruce, who stood alongside me when we picketed Chapel Hill Mall advertisers during a Guild negotiations endurance contest with BJ management.

It's almost like a Hall of Fame collection. 

 Good grief! Is there no end to the calamity!

The silver lining that gave hope to newspapers around the country – “It can’t get any worse” – has been drowned by the dark clouds of the coronavirus, which has closed more than 60 newsrooms in America in 2020.

Among entities that has their claws on the BJ over the decades:

Sound Publishing in Washington state laid off 70 people in its Washington and Alaska newsrooms. Sound Publishing owns 49 newsrooms, and the layoffs make up 20% of its workforce. Sound also suspended four print publications in Kitsap County and reduced staff.

Seven McClatchy newspapers will move out of their newsrooms and work remotely for the rest of the year. They are the Miami Herald, the Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, the McClatchy D.C. office, The State in Columbia, South Carolina, The Modesto (California) Bee, the Merced (California) Sun-Star and the San Luis Obispo (California) Tribune. McClatchy furloughed 4.4% of staff at its 30 papers around the country.

And in Ohio:

Three copy editors took buyouts at the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Poynter. It is owned by Gannett.

Cleveland Scene in Ohio laid off five staffers.

Mount Vernon (Ohio) News, which was locally owned, was sold to Metric Media LLC, cut down to two print days a week and took down its paywall online.

It didn’t matter whether the newspaper was large or small, either.

Hell, the birthplace of the Pulitzer Prizes,  the St. Louis Post Dispatch, eliminated a digital sports editor position. It is owned by Lee Enterprises.

Tribune Publishing announced permanent pay cuts of between 2% and 10% and executives will take pay cuts. Tribune newsrooms include the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, The Baltimore Sun and The Virginian-Pilot. It also had furloughs.

When newspapers suffer, so does democracy. They are the watchdogs who shine the public spotlight on corruption by politicians and businesses. Without newspapers, it’s a field day for the big, the bad and the ugly in America.

To read depressing details of the carnage, click on Here are the newsroom layoffs, furloughs and closures caused by the coronavirus - Poynter

 

Virtual clapout for 5 BJ exits

 

BY BETTY LIN-FISHER

Yesterday, the virtual Beacon newsroom kept the clapout tradition alive. We had a virtual clapout for five of our colleagues who took the recent Gannett buyout:

 

Bob Dyer,

, Yuvonne Bruce Webb

, Kim Drezdon, Malcom Abram and Scott Babbo.

 

We will miss all of their expertise and companionship! While we couldn't gather in person, we had a virtual "Clap Out." The picture credit goes to Bob Dyer, who used a setting in the virtual meeting that seats participants in auditorium chairs

 

Good luck to everyone!

 

(There were also probably other ABJ alumni who took the buyout since it was companywide. One I know of is

Steve Berta

, who posted about it on his Facebook page and took the buyout from the Indy Star.)

 

(Picture IDs since I know former journalists will ask - Top from left, Stephanie Warsmith, Mike Shearer, Betty Lin-Fisher, Bob Dyer, (2nd row from top from left): Jim Mackinnon, Cheryl Powell, April Helms, (3rd row from bottom from left): Emily Mills, Joe Thomas, Jennifer Pignolet, Kerry Clawson, (2nd row from the bottom from left) Scott Babbo, Scot Fagerstrom, Darrin Werbeck, (front row from left) Dan Kadar and Doug Livingston). There were more people on the call, but they may not have had their cameras on, so they didn't get put into an auditorium chair.)

 

BY YUVONNE BRUCE-WEBB

 

 

 

BY STEVE BERTA

I cleaned out my desk at an eerily quiet IndyStar office yesterday, completing my last day at the place that defined my career in journalism.

I accepted Gannett's buyout offer, so for now I'm taking it easy and jumping into the kitchen remodeling project we've been putting off.

COVID, and working from home, made my last day surreal. The parking garage was so empty that, when I closed my car door, it sounded like a major explosion echoing across a mountain range.

It was a strange ending, but par for the course in 2020 I guess. There was a great Zoom sendoff last night for those of us who were leaving. I'm grateful for all the kind words.

Now, I guess, it's on to new adventures, starting with that kitchen.