Ron Kirksey's last day at work

Here's a photo of former BJ ivory tower product Ron Kirksey shot by BJ photographer Paul Tople on April 30 at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens during the announcing of Kent State University's liquid crystal working to develop a new "smart greenhouse".

"Ron said it was his last day of working for KSU and he would be retiring," Tople emailed us this week. " I am sorry to get this to you so late,,,, but I have been a little busy."

Kirksey, director of university communincations at KSU, retired on April 30 --an event which was duly reported on this blog in a post on .April 9. Or you can type Kirksey in the search box at top left to see our posts about Kirksey.

Pam McCarthy: journalist, teacher then and now

Former BJ staffer Pam McCarthy retired May 31 after 33 years of teaching and, she says, 35.88 hours on the state pension systems.

This provided us an opportunity to reprint a favorite old photo: A gathering in the back room of Jack Horner 's in 1974 for the wake of the old State Desk which was disbanded.

In front is Pam McCarthy, Standing In the back is Cathy Strong who now lives in New Zealand. Caught in the middle (from left) are Kathy Goforth, now in New York City, Kathy Fraze who is still at the BJ as copy desk chief, retired TV editor John Olesky, then assistant State Desk editor retired since 1996, and the late Jan Clark. Pat Englehart was State Editor. He died Oct 29, 1995 in Ocala, FL, at the age of 70.

Pam retired from North Canton Hoover High School after 22 years of advising The Viking Views. For the past don't-know-how-many years, the kids have been publishing a 40-page newsmagazine 12 times a year. This year, due to money matters, there were 9 print issues and 2 web-only issues, published on the asne-sponsored website.

All 11 issues plus the senior color supplement were also published in PDF format on the school website at www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~vv1nc

The ASNE website is at www.my.highschooljournalism.org/oh/northcanton/hhs

On the cover of the last print issue of this year -- issue 11 -- students asked Pam to choose her favorite covers from the past 22 years.

“I'm having it framed for my home office,” Pam writers. :” It's been a nice ride. Now I get to re-invent myself.”

Send your well wishes to
pam.mccarthy@gmail.com
1006 Sunset Blvd. SW
North Canton, OH 44720

Natalie McIntyre dies in Michigan on Mother’s Day

Here’s one we missed. Natalie McIntyre, wife of former BJ staffer Bruce McIntyre, died on Mother’s Day, May 11, 2008. Here is the full news obituary

By JERRY WOLFFE
Of The Oakland Press
Natalie Ann McIntyre, the wife of Bruce McIntyre, a former publisher of The Oakland Press, died on Mother's Day [May 11, 2008] surrounded by her loving family.

She was 80.

Mrs. McIntyre was diagnosed with leukemia in January at the Cleveland Clinic.

"Doctors took a blood test and put her in the hospital that first night," her husband, Bruce, said. "The hematologist told her the diagnosis the next morning."

She questioned the proposed treatment. "Do people really go through that?" she asked the doctor, referring to traditional treatment, McIntyre said.

"So instead of getting upset, she said, 'Let's celebrate.' We ordered a first-class dinner and champagne.

"She accepted it and decided to enjoy every day," he said.

Natalie Ann McIntyre was the daughter of Emil and Lillie (Alstadt) Wolff, born June 2, 1927, in Erie, Pa.

She met and married Bruce when he was a reporter at the Erie Times in 1953. They lived in Akron, Ohio; Battle Creek; and in Oakland County. Bruce worked at The Oakland Press from 1971 to 1995.

Mrs McIntyre had been a member of the Orchard Lake Nature Sanctuary Advisory Board, the Creative Arts Center Board, the Vestry and Altar Guild of All Saints Episcopal Church, the Akron Library Board and was a founding member of the Women's Survival Center.

Jane Alstadt McIntyre, one of her four daughters, said: "She was truly remarkable in the way she touched people's lives, whether she knew them for a short time or a longer time.

"She had a remarkable ability to make a difference in people's lives no matter how long she knew them," she added.

Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth Wolff McIntyre, said: "As a mother, she was unconditional in her love and acceptance of all of us. That was how she was as a woman ... unconditionally loving and accepting to everyone she met."

Wolff McIntyre said her mother loved to read, especially books on psychology and theology.

Alstadt McIntyre said: "She did a great deal of charity for a variety of nonprofits.

"She loved gardening. She also had a flare for interior design. Visitors often said her home was one of the most beautiful houses they were ever in.

"She also had a great appreciation for beauty and that manifested in her garden and home."

Her daughters also said their mother loved fine food and was "quite a gourmet. Her passion was for the arts, the opera and was a season ticketholder to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra."

McIntyre said his wife "held on and died a few minutes after midnight on Mother's Day."

"I actually think it was kind of cool that she died on Mother's Day," said her daughter, Jane. "Her life's work was being a mother. We thought it was incredibly significant that she died on Mother's Day."

Besides her husband, Natalie is survived by her son, Douglas Alexander McIntyre (Dr. Patricia Allen) of New York City; daughters Elizabeth Wolff McIntyre (Daniel Brzozowski), Emily Olmsted McIntyre (Paul Hancock) of Clarkston, Catherine Natalie McIntyre (Dwight Hoffman) of Sylvan Lake and Jane Alstadt McIntyre of Novi; grandsons Garrett Wolff McIntyre, Hunter Garrahan McIntyre and Nicholas Andrei Hoffman and sister Phyllis Budell.

Following cremation, there will be a memorial service at All Saints Episcopal Church, 171 W. Pike at Williams St., Pontiac -- her church for 37 years -- at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The memorial service is open to the public.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the church in her name.

[Source: News obituary published in full from Oakland Press, Pontiac, MI, May 13, 2008]

Bankruptcies, closings loom in worst year on record

Here’s the lead on a New York Times story today in which an analysts predicts bankruptcies and closings for newspapers in the worst year on record.

For newspapers, the news has swiftly gone from bad to worse. This year is taking shape as their worst on record, with a double-digit drop in advertising revenue, raising serious questions about the survival of some papers and the solvency of their parent companies.

Ad revenue, the primary source of newspaper income, began sliding two years ago, and as hiring freezes turned to buyouts and then to layoffs, the decline has only accelerated.

On top of long-term changes in the industry, the weak economy is also hurting ad sales, especially in Florida and California, where the severe contraction of the housing markets has cut deeply into real estate ads. Executives at the Hearst Corporation say that one of their biggest papers, The San Francisco Chronicle, is losing $1 million a week.

Over all, ad revenue fell almost 8 percent last year. This year, it is running about 12 percent below that dismal performance, and company reports issued last week suggested a 14 percent to 15 percent decline in May.

“Never in my most bearish dreams six months ago did I think we’d be talking about negative 15 percent numbers against weak comps,” said Peter S. Appert, an analyst at Goldman Sachs. “I think the probability is very high that there will be a number of examples of individual newspapers and newspaper companies that fall into a loss position. And I think it’s inevitable that there will be closures in this industry, and maybe bankruptcies.”

Click on the headline to read the full story in today’s New York Times

It was the 'ripple affect' that stirred us

Because this blog tries to be loyal to its former employer, we usually think twice before we criticize.

Also because the Cleveland Cavaliers got shut out of the NBA playoffs, it seemed no big deal that a promo splashed across the top of page 1 on Monday gave the wrong score when the Boston Celtics won the title. Boston 140, Lakes 92. The sports pages carried the correct score 132 to 92.

Today, however, we must criticize the headline spread across five columns on the bottom of page 1:

It read: Fuel costs have ripple affect for local boaters.

affect is a verb, effect is the noun.

Gospel Time radio show host, 79, dies

Annie W. Robinson declared ''if Jesus can't fix it, nobody can,'' every Sunday morning for more than four decades across local radio airwaves.

Her voice was silenced on Tuesday, after a short battle with cancer, at Akron General Medical Center. The Akron Broadcasters Hall of Famer was 79.

'Dubbed the ''Gospel Queen,'' Mrs. Robinson started hosting her radio program Gospel Time in 1964 on 1350-AM [when the now WARF sports radio station was WADC, sponsored by the Automobile Dealers Co.]. Her show was a Sunday morning mainstay through the station's format transitions from automotive to country to urban contemporary to sports.

WARF Program Director Keith Kennedy said it would be difficult to find a family in the Greater Akron black church community that hasn't listened to her gospel music show.

''I don't know too many people who didn't start their Sunday mornings with her,'' Kennedy said. ''You wouldn't believe the number of people who have been calling in and saying they listened to the show as a child and now they're sharing the show with their children. She really bridged the gap between generations in families.''

Click on the headline to read the story by Colette M. Jenkins, Beacon Journal religion writer

Mourning in America: Russert coverage

This is the full article as it ran on mediacrit.com, a blog of news and journalism criticism

Tim Russert, the host of NBC’s Meet the Press for 17 years who died suddenly on June 13, seemed like a thoroughly decent guy to me. In the following days, Washington journalists, politicians, and his viewing public lauded him as a fine political analyst, a straight shooter, and a great family man.

In fact, we heard those things over and over again in what seemed to be an avalanche of memorial coverage. Was there too much. Was it out of proportion?

One way to determine this is to look at TV news coverage of the last big TV news figure to die, ABC’s Peter Jennings, on August 7, 2008. Jennings was a TV news anchor and reporter for more than 40 years, and was the chief anchor of World News Tonight for 22 years – one of the “Big Three” anchors through the 1980s and 1990s with Tom Brokaw at NBC and Dan Rather at CBS.

Here’s the breakdown, based on story times from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, of the first full day of evening news coverage for each.

Jennings Death, Aug. 8, 2005..........Russert Death, June 13, 2008
ABC 23:30................................,,.......4:00
CBS 6:40.........................................11:50
NBC 10:00.......................................28:30
CNN 21:30.......................................33:00
Total 1:01:40................................1:17:20

Interestly, NBC devoted the entire 28:30 minutes of its Nightly News program on Russert’s death, even with Brian Williams anchoring via satellite from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. In 2005 on ABC World News Tonight, most of the program covered Jennings’ death, but anchor Charles Gibson also saved five minutes for stories on a postponed Space Shuttle landing, an Iraqi sandstorm, energy policy, and gasoline prices.

The network news was about even in special coverage for the two. After Jenning’s death, ABC had three special commemorative broadcasts: an entire Nightline devoted to his memory, a half-hour tribute on the day he died, and a two-hour primetime tribute show three days later. After Russert’s death last week, NBC ran special remembrance editions of Dateline NBC, the Today Show, and Meet the Press. But, as Jack Shafer in Slate and others have observed, the praise-as-news about Russert continued to reverberate heavily through cable, blogs, and newspapers.

The results are interesting, given that Jennings had a much longer on-air career, and that he anchored five days a week, compared to Russert’s much smaller audiences for a niche Sunday morning program.

Of course, Russert was younger at 58, and his death by heart attack was more sudden than Jennings, who was 67 and signed off his last broadcast about three months before he died of lung cancer.

But, it’s also worth considering the competing news agenda. When Jennings died there were no other big news stories. When Russert died, there was the major continuing saga of 500-year floods in Iowa and the Upper Midwest.

Given the comparison to Jennings, I think the coverage of Russert’s death – with no disrespect to him or his family – was out of proportion.

Why? My analysis is that there is more to these narratives than just that a national news personality died.

Jennings, despite his long successful career (his newscast was rated first or second for most of his tenure) was more of a political outsider. Born in Canada, Jennings had a more international outlook of any of his anchor peers, and had spent several years as a foreign correspondent. It wasn’t until 2003 that he acquired U.S. citizenship, but conservatives regularly attacked him for “liberal bias” and a “European agenda.”

Russert, on the other hand, was one of the elite Washington beltway gang. As the son of a Buffalo, New York sanitation worker (Russert celebrated his dad “Big Russ” in a book) he was roundly praised for his “blue-collar sensibility.” But it was the mythology of his blue-collar origins that belied the fact that he was truly a Washington insider. He worked in politics with New York Sen. Daniel Moynihan and Gov. Mario Cuomo before he got into news, and he clearly loved the “inside game” of politics.

Politicians of both parties liked him, because for all of his storied tough questioning, he was a guy who played by the polite rules of Washington, where the worst a liar can do is “misspeak.” Tellingly, Cathie Martin, Dick Cheney’s spokesperson, testified in the 2007 perjury trial of Scooter Libby that when the administration was criticized for overstating the case for war against Iraq, their strategy was to put Cheney on Russert’s show, where they thought they could control the message. “I suggested we put the vice president on Meet the Press, which was a tactic we often used,” she said. “It’s our best format.”

Being favored by Dick Cheney’s handlers doesn’t sound like a case for the journalism hall of fame, though.

In the case of Russert, we should consider what small impact “public affairs” journalism like Meet the Press has in these days of The Daily Show, social networking on the Internet, and Obama’s nontraditional campaign. I think the New York Times’ Media Equation columnist David Carr got it right when he observed that the mourning seemed not only for Russert, but an attempt to celebrate and shore up the increasingly irrelevant establishment political journalism.

How McClatchy papers covered the cuts

The Columbia Journalism Review did an interesting article on how McClatchy's own newspapers covered the huge cuts planned by the newspaper chain.

The former Knight Ridder Miami Herald was the only newspaper apparently that lead with the cuts in its own staff and then discussed chain wide cuts. Most led with the chain and then belatedly told how many jobs their newspaper would be losing.

Click on the headline for the interesting review.

Retired Repository editor joins chamber

CANTON – David Kaminski, retired editor of The Repository, has joined the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce as director of business development and strategic projects. He succeeds James Pennetti, who is now vice president of community investments for United Way of Greater Stark County.

Kaminski most recently operated a research and consultant business. He will administer the education and work force development initiative though oversight of its Education Committee and Task Force. He has led the task force the past year on a free-lance basis. He will oversee the 21st Century Government Initiative to study the cost of local government and explore the potential of regional government.

Before retiring in May 2007, Kaminski worked for The Repository for 33 years, the last 10 as editor. He has been active in the community.

He and his wife, Anne, have four adult children and reside at Canton.
[Source: Times-Reporter, New Philadephia, OH]

McClatchy cuts not being done on equal basis

McClatchy's plan to cut 10% of its workforce, or some 1,400 jobs, is not being implemented with equal damage everywhere, according to local newspapers, Joe Strupp reports in Editor & Publisher. . While The Miami Herald is being hit with a 17% staff cut, others, such as The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., are seeing less pain, with a 3.6% cutback.

The highly praised McClatchy (was Knight Ridder) Washington, D.C., bureau, meanwhile, is not losing any jobs during this round, according to Howard Weaver, McClatchy's vice president/news. "The bureau is smaller than it used to be, and it covers things differently," Weaver told E&P. "I think the editors realize it is a valuable contributor to them."

At local papers, meanwhile, the companywide cutback announced Monday is being felt with varying levels of pain, an approach Weaver contends is the fairest way to handle the economic problems. "There is a huge swing," he said about the implementation. "We have had some departments that haven’t had to lay anyone off, and others that are considerable."

Ann Caulkins, publisher and president of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, which announced it would reduced its workforce by 123 positions, or about 11.1%, said that is the fairest approach: "It depends on the local properties and where they are financially," she said. "You have to ask them to make adjustments accordingly."

Most newspaper editors and publishers declined to comment, instead referring to memos or Monday stories about the cutbacks.

McClatchy to cut work force by 10 percent

McClatchy Co. said Monday it will cut 10 percent of its workforce in a move to save $70 million a year as the newspaper publisher continues to struggle to attract advertising dollars.

McClatchy, which publishes The Kansas City Star and The Miami Herald, will trim about 1,400 employees. The staff reductions are part of a plan to reduce overall expenses by $95 million to $100 million over the next four quarters.

"The effects of the current national economic downturn — particularly in real estate, auto and employment advertising — make it essential that we move faster now to realign our workforce and make our operations more efficient," said McClatchy Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a statement.

McClatchy said in April that it swung to a loss in the first quarter as a weakening economy and competition from online rivals led to a 15 percent plunge in advertising revenues at its newspapers.

On Monday, the company said May revenue fell 15.1 percent year-over-year, and ad sales were down 16.6 percent. Declines in print advertising were partially offset by a 12.9 percent gain in online advertising revenue last month.

For the first five months of the year, total revenue has declined 14.2 percent, includinga 15.4 percent drop in ad sales. Online ad sales have grown 11.9 percent year to date.

Shares fell 9 cents to $8.10 in early trading.

[Source: Associated Press]

PD reporter wins first MOLLY award

Plain Dealer reporter Diane Suchetka has won the firar MOLLY National Journalism Award for "Bernard's Story."

The four-part series detailed the journey of Bernard Hill, a high school dropout from the Mount Pleasant neighborhood who earned a high school equivalency diploma.

The MOLLY award honors the late Molly Ivins, a legendary columnist and former editor of The Texas Observer in Austin, Texas. Ivins, 62, died in 2007. She had breast cancer.


The award, which is in its first year, recognizes the best print and online journalism that focuses on civil liberties and so cial justice and in cludes a $5,000 prize.

"We're proud of Diane for becoming the first winner of the MOLLY," said Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg. "The stories captured the spirit of a young man who refused to quit -- characteristics that Molly Ivins celebrated in her columns for many years. Diane sets a high bar for the award."

Suchetka will receive the award today in Austin at a ceremony where broadcast journalist Dan Rather will give the keynote speech.

"If I could've designed the journalism prize I most wanted to win, this would've been it," Suchetka said. "Molly Ivins had more pluck and wit and brains and heart than anybody in this business. And she used it all to do good, to tell the truth, fight for the little guy, bring about justice. She's my hero."

Click on the headline to read "Bernard's Story."

Zell called LA Times Human Wrecking Ball

A report from the Wasthington Post:

On Oct. 1, 1910, a bomb set by James McNamara, an operative of the Iron Workers union, then embroiled in a ferocious dispute with the Los Angeles Times, blew up the Times building, killing 21 pressmen. McNamara was arrested the following April, convicted and later sentenced to life in prison. He died in San Quentin in 1941.

The question for today is: Would a similar sentence be appropriate for Sam Zell?

Zell, for those of you fortunate enough not to follow news of the newspaper business, is the Chicago real estate magnate who last year purchased the Tribune Co., which owns the Times, the Chicago Tribune and a number of smaller papers. At the rate he's going, he's well on his way to accomplishing a feat that McNamara didn't even contemplate: destroying the L.A. Times.

In his brief tenure atop the Trib empire, Zell has concluded that the proper response to the very real troubles in which the newspaper industry finds itself is to cut back on what newspapers offer. When Zell took over, the Times had already been through successive rounds of buyouts and layoffs administered by Tribune executives, but Zell has taken bean counting to a whole new level.
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During his first year in journalism, Zell has visited the city rooms and Washington bureaus of a number of Trib publications to deliver obscenity-laced warnings and threats to employees that whatever it was they were doing, it wasn't working. There was too much coverage of world and national affairs, he told Times writers and editors; readers don't want that stuff. Last week, the company decreed that its 12 papers would have to cut by 500 the number of pages they devoted every week to news, features and editorials, until the ratio of pages devoted to copy and pages devoted to advertising was a nice, even 1 to 1. At the Times, that would mean eliminating 82 pages a week.

Click on the headline to read the rest of this story by Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post.

8 attend monthly BJ retirees lunch

Updated to include report by Tom Moore. Photos provided by Moore. Click on image to enlarge for better view.

By TOM MOORE
Eight folks showed for the BJ retiree luncheon this month The number might have been small, but the talk made up for it as we discussed old friends and remembered those who are no longer with us.

Printer Francis Reeves came with Ed Hanzel and his wife, Norma. I had not seen Francis for a lot of years. But I remember him working the bank, proofing type in the old hot-type days…a fellow who got along with everybody….as did his brother the late Red, also a printer and one hell of a makeup man.

Francis had a good story or two, among them, the time an editorial type was close to deadline…need the galley of type a printer was carrying. The printer stumbled and dropped the galley, spilling it all over the floor. Francis recalled he thought the editorial person was going to have a heart attack.

But the printer was only fooling. The type he spilled was garbage!

And he was an eyewitness when I was overseeing page one and grabbed the phone to talk to the copy desk. The phone cord ran into a buzz saw…..those metal saws that were kept running all the time. I, of course, had to get an answer to a questions, sp I went to another phone and dialed the desk and told them I’d “been cut off.”

Ed Hanzel said Bob Pell wasn’t feeling up to the luncheon. Also missing were John Olesky, who had a doctor’s appointment, and a couple three other regulars.

I picked up Dave Boerner and we had a nice chat on the way over and back. Dave is involved in a project right now…editing his home movies and photos to come up with a DVD that will be a history of his family.

This was the first luncheon I’d made in four months. The first one I missed was because of company from Canada…the daughter of the late Brian MacNamara who worked briefly for the Beacon Journal in the women’s department. Brian and I worked together in Lorain and then in Columbus. He came to Akron and worked for Malone Advertising, taking a job that I
turned down.

The next luncheon was one of those appointments all of us oldsters
face—doctor checkup. And the last one, we were in Bowie, Md., getting daughter Kathy’s house ready to go on the market. Kathy in June completed 30 years with
the EPA and is retiring and coming back to Akron.

By the way, she’s an BJ alumni…she was a weekend copykid…way back when.

Back to the present. I announced I was wearing my Dave White memorial belt buckle…the pride of the collection of 150. Dave, a retired composing room honcho, and Gina, his wife, live in Florida. Dave had this great buckle decorated with a horse’s head. I admired it and told him so and I keep insisting that if he kicked the bucket or retired, he should leave a buckle for me. When he retired, he came out into the editorial room, stopped at my desk and placed the buckle before me.

Now Dave and I had our clashes in the heat of battle. And we didn’t mince words at times. Many times we would yell at each other a few words that did not include “you’re a horse’s head”….Our words were aimed a bit lower on the horse.

Also attending the June luncheon was Tim Hayes, Carl Nelson and Cal
Deshong.

Cleveland Leader reports big cuts at PD

Submitted by Roldo Bartimole on June 10, 2008

Top Plain Dealer executives – Publisher Terry Egger and Editor Susan Goldberg - told worried editorial staff members yesterday that the business climate is so bad that the paper plans to cut 35 pages a week from its news pages and 20 percent of its workforce.

Egger said they were looking at “drastic changes,” according to PD reporters.

That’s 35 pages of less news every week or 1,820 pages a year for readers of Cleveland's only daily newspaper.

A day ago the Tribune Company announced it would chop 500 pages a week from its newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant and others. The New York Times reported that it could mean 82 pages a day cut from the L. A. Times.

The plan has to be approved by Advance publications, owned by the Newhouse family, Plain Dealer owners.

A newspaper price increase is also contemplated.

The paper has already lost some 17 percent of its editorial staff after a recent buyout.

The paper will reduce its op-ed pages from two to one; stock tables will be gone. There will be no business pages on Monday and special sports sections will be eliminated.

Fun Video: How to be a reporter

Click on the headline for a just-for-fun video from the Chicago Tribune on how to be a reporter:
: "Look sharp, young man. Make sure your fedora hat is straight and your press card is firmly attached." Chicago Magazine editor Dick Babcock wins productivity points for starring as the Chicago Tribune editor. (Tribune owns the magazine, too.) : "We want to come up with our own home-grown content. This is one of those efforts," says the Tribune's Kevin Pang.

Tough times for Brian Tierney

Taken from the lead of a Fortune magazine feature:

Brian Tierney was pretty cocky when he and a group of investors bought the Philadelphia Inquirer and its sister, the tabloid Daily News, for $515 million two years ago. The former public relations magnate vowed to boost circulation and revenue at the papers.

How would he do that when Knight Ridder, their former owner, had failed to do so before reluctantly selling itself to McClatchy Newspapers (MNI)?

Tierney boasted that he and his partners could invest more money into the Inquirer and the Daily News because, unlike Knight Ridder, they weren't facing angry public shareholders obsessed with the next quarter.

Sounds straightforward enough. Focus on the long-term and reap the rewards of your fortitude. But that doesn't mean Tierney and his partners aren't under considerable pressure in the short run.

They borrowed at least $345 million to finance their acquisition. Last week, a Standard & Poor's newsletter reported that Philadelphia Media Holdings was in violation of its covenants on its senior debt and missed a June 1 interest payment on a mezzanine loan.

Jay Devine, spokesman for the company, declined to comment on the specifics of the credit challenges. "This is not a sign of any big problems at the company," he insists. But given the financial pressures, Tierney and Co. can only be doing so much investing in the Inquirer these days.

A similar story is playing out at newly-private newspapers across the country.


Knight Ridder blamed Wall Street when it cut. Tierney can always scapegoat his lenders. Either way, the results look depressingly familiar.

Click on the headline to read the full story.

Karen Lefton, Linda Lyell leaving BJ

Karen Lefton is leaving her position as general counsel of the Akron Beacon Journal to join the law firm of Brouse McDowell, where she will be a principal in the labor and employment group. Her last day will be June 20.

Lefton, who has been at the Beacon Journal for 28 years, joined the newspaper as a reporter in January, 1980. She also worked as a copy editor, news editor, region editor and city editor.

During the five years she was city editor, the Beacon Journal was named best newspaper of its size in Ohio four times. After 17 years in the newsroom, she moved to Human Resources and became the labor relations manager, working on employee and union matters. She grew into assisting with all areas of the law and most enjoyed helping the newsroom get access to public records and meetings. As associate general counsel, she successfully argued the newspaper's case for access to juror questionnaires at the Ohio Supreme Court. Citing the Beacon Journal v. Bond case, many jurisdictions now include a caveat on their juror questionnaires that the information potential jurors provide is public.

Linda Lyell, the Beacon Journal's vice president of Online Operations, also is leaving.
She has been with Ohio.com since 1999. Before that, she worked for the Beacon Journal as the creative director in Marketing Communications. She has been a marketing director for Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Main Street Muffins, has operated her own business and has worked as a Beacon Journal promotional design artist.

Lyell is looking forward to spending some time with her family and getting back into her artwork. She will work for about two more months.

After the sale of the paper, Linda led the Ohio. com team through the transition to a new platform. Since then traffic to Ohio.com has shown rapid growth. Year over year from 2006 2007 Ohio. com had a yearly total of 83 million page views, reflecting 18% growth. From January 2007 to January 2008 unique visitors grew to more than 1 million monthly, a 68% growth.

[Source: June 9 memo to staff by publisher Andrea C. Matthewson]

Regina Brett: A moving series called "Inheritance'

Regina Brett and daughter Gabrielle

Ten years ago, former BJ staffer and now PD columnist Regina Brett wrote four columns after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Now she presents four columns about what her daughter, Gabrielle, inherited from her.. “These were far more difficult to write, ” she notes.

But let Regina explain it far better in her own words.

Would you want to know if you carried a gene for a potentially fatal disease? If you found out you had that gene, would you want your child to know if she carried it, too?

It's a terrible legacy to pass on. A mutation in every single cell of your body. I have one. It's called BRCA1. It's one of the breast cancer genes.

There are so many traits I want to pass on to my daughter. A gene for a fatal disease isn't one of them.

Ten years ago, I wrote four columns after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Today I present four columns about what my daughter inherited from me. These were far more difficult to write.

Our story begins with a test.

The test: Did I pass the breast-cancer gene to my daughter?

Before we left the house that morning, my daughter, Gabrielle, and I braced ourselves for the news we didn't want to hear.

We steadied ourselves with prayers and hugs and hoped for the best.

We knew better.

As the mother, I needed to be the strong one. My heart was breaking but I couldn't show it, couldn't let my daughter know how sad I felt, how scared. This was the day we would learn if I had given her a gene that could kill her.

The drive to the genetics center Feb. 21, 2002, seemed so long even though it is only a few minutes' drive to University Hospitals. We walked through the hospital maze to the Center for Human Genetics. I remembered these halls too well. It was like entering my own personal haunted house. This was where I got the cancer verdict in 1998, the MRIs, bone scans and ultrasounds to see if the cancer had spread beyond my breast. The surgery took place upstairs, radiation treatments in the basement. Three years later, I received genetic testing here and as a result -- oh, my heart ached for her -- I had both of my breasts removed.

This was different.

Click on the headline to read the columns and view a video and more photos


This was my daughter.

Bill Moyers gives keynote address on media reform

More than 3,500 people gathered this weekend in Minneapolis for the fourth annual National Conference for Media Reform. The thousands of participants took part in panel discussions and strategized about efforts to fight media consolidation and democratize the airwaves. The three-day event was organized by the media reform group Free Press.

The highlight of the weekend was the keynote address by legendary broadcaster, Bill Moyers, host of the weekly PBS program Bill Moyers Journal. Moyers was one of the founding organizers of the Peace Corps, press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, publisher of Newsday, senior correspondent for CBS News and a producer of many groundbreaking series on public television. He won more than thirty Emmys and is the author of four bestselling books. His latest, just out, is called Moyers on Democracy. On Saturday morning, Bill Moyers took to the stage and addressed the packed convention auditorium.

Click on the headline to read the test orf Moyers’ speech. You also can watch a video recording of the speech.

Dorothy & Paul McGough Celebrate 60th

Retired Beacon Journal pressroom retiree Paul McGough and wife, Dorothy are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. Here is the annpuncement in the Akron Beacon Journal on Monday:

Dorothy (Flechler) and Paul McGough are celebrating their. 60th wedding anniversary.. They were married on June l2, 1948 at St. Paul's Catholic Church.

Both were born in Akron, raised in Firestone Park, and graduated from Garfield High School. Paul retired from the Akron Beacon Journal in 1987. They have eight children, 17 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. A family party is planned for June 15, 2008 to celebrated the occasion..

[Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Monday, June 9, 2008, page E7, col. 5]

Beacon Journal, 93 others join Yahoo group

The Akron Beacon Journal and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, another of the Black Ltd. Newspapers, are among 94 newspqpers who have joined Yahoo’s online advertising venture. The Milwaukee Journal, the Chicago Sun-Times and 70 other Chicago newspapers are among the additions which bring the total numer of newspapers involved to 799. The newspapers represent about 41 percent of the total Sunday circulation.

Yahoo sells ads across the online sites of memer newspapers.

In related news, Yahoo announced a deal with Wal-Mart to provide online ads, including video ads, for the retail giant's Wal-Mart.com site.

The newest companies to join the partnership are the Sun-Times News Group (STNG) with its flagship Chicago Sun-Times and 70 Chicago-area papers; the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Black Press, which includes the Akron Beacon Journal and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin; Stephens Media Group, including the Las Vegas Review Journal and 11 dailies; Independent Newspapers, publisher of the Delaware State News; and Yankton Media, publisher of the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan.

"We have been impressed with how Yahoo and the newspaper consortium have jumpstarted the newspaper industry's digital presence," Rich Surkamer, chief operating officer of the Sun-Times Newspaper Group, said..

Elizabeth Brenner, president and COO of Journal Communications, said the company was attracted to Yahoo's advertising network platform.

The partnership allows newspapers -- if they choose -- to integrate HotJobs into their offerings. Other prongs of the alliance include access to Yahoo's advertising technology, the recently launched AMP which will give the members one common platform. In the summer, Yahoo expects to roll out AMP to its partners.

Newspapers also have the ability to sell Yahoo's local inventory to their clients.

So far, almost 600 newspapers have signed on to HotJobs, using the recruitment site exclusively through co-branded efforts. More than 50 newspapers are involved in the test pilot selling targeted Yahoo inventory to local advertisers.

Close to 150 papers have launched Yahoo search products. And newspapers in the partnership now receive more than 10 million "referrals" a month from the distribution of news headlines across the Yahoo network.

"We're now in the midst of a comprehensive sales training program designed to help the consortium's 6,000-plus sales representatives to take advantage of the new online tools they'll soon be receiving from Yahoo," Lem Lloyd, Yahoo vice president of the newspaper consortium, said in a statement.

[Source: Editor & Publisher and newspapers involved.]

Ken Rosenbaum is a blogger now

Ken Rosenbaum, who has retired after 24 years at the Toledo Blade, fondly remembers his brief time at the Beacon Journal in 1968.

After leaving the Beacon, Ken notes that he closed two newspapers–the Cleveland Press and St. Louis Globe Democrat. “Of course, the fine folks in Toledo were understandably nervous when I arrived,” he writes.

Ken says he remembers those at the BJ as “a great bunch” and is glad he was was not in Akron to witness the sale of Knight-Ridder.

After 45 years as a journalist in Columbus, Medina, Akron, Cleveland, St. Louis and Toledo (for the past 24 years), Ken has retired–but not really. He is still writing one of three Toledo Blade blogs.

Here’s how the blog intro describes it:

Ken Rosenbaum is having a senior moment. In fact, all his moments now are officially senior ones.. Contrary to popular belief, having a senior moment can be a good thing. He'll introduce you to some Toledo seniors and what's on their minds. He'll share thoughts on diet, exercise, health, music, travel and fun for seniors. He'll visit northwest Ohio senior centers, checking out their facilities, services and friendliness. This won't be an old folks diary, rather a breezy journey through what Ken expects to be the best time of life. Join him for the ride.

Viewers of this blog, can join in the ride, by going to toledoblade.com. Just click on Blade Blogs on the left side of the screen. One of the three smiling faces looks just like the one on this post. That’s Ken:

You can send email to kenrosenbaum@bex.net

Giffels book reviewed by PD's Karen Long

The headline for a review of BJ columnist David Giffels book in today's Plain Dealer reads:

Giffels' home-renovation memoir a delight

Book Editor Karen R. Long writes:

Like a lot of writers, David Giffels hopes to make readers laugh and cry with his new memoir, "All the Way Home." His publicist hopes to see it sell as briskly as another domestic tale from a witty newspaperman, "Marley and Me."

We can see the parallel: charming narrator tells story of bad dog/bad house. In each book, bad carries its standard meaning and its street connotation: baaad, as in "formidable, not to be trifled with."

For Giffels, a puckish columnist at the Akron Beacon Journal, and his wife, Gina, a former teacher, it was game over in 1996 from the first glimpse of crystal twin chandeliers, still dangling in a Gilded Age mansion that was more wreck than remnant of anything habitable.

Except that inside the pair discovered a decrepit owner, huddled in a few rooms without running water or electricity, her osteoporosis forming her spine into a question mark, her orders strict that nothing be touched.

How the Giffelses come to buy this "absurd, stupendous place" for $65,000 is a suspenseful story in itself. The attic was "exploding with vegetation and wildlife," the Akron Department of Health had condemned the property, and the former owner refused to vacate.

The way the Giffelses resurrect this structure without sinking their marriage forms the struts of "All the Way Home." It's a pleasure to follow the author around the side and across the only working threshold.

Long adds later:

It's fun to think about LeBron James building his Sagamore Hills castle even as Giffels, a former Cavs ball boy, throws his 150-pound frame into restoring his own version nearby.

Click on the headline to read Long’s review

Read our earlier post on a New York Times Review of the book.

Why Iraq War no longer gets big play

Los Angeles Times foreign editor Marjorie Miller gives three reasons why the Iraq War no long ers big play:

• The cost of keeping correspondents in Baghdad is trimming the roster of journalists;

• The economic downturn and the contentious presidential primaries have sucked oxygen from Iraq; and

• With no solutions in sight, with no light at the end of the tunnel, war fatigue has set in.

Click on the headline to read the story in the Columbia Journalism Review

On 225th birthday, are newspapers dying?

Plain Talk by Al Neuharth in USA Today

"The report of my death is an exaggeration."

Mark Twain to the New York Journal, 1897

The first daily newspaper in the USA was born 225 years ago next week. The triweekly Pennsylvania Evening Post in Philadelphia became a daily on May 30, 1783.

Since then, most cities or small towns across the USA have had their own daily or weekly newspaper. Currently, 1,422 dailies and 6,253 weeklies are being published.

Sure, the slumping economy has made times a little tough for them. But most still have profit margins well above most other businesses.

Exaggerated "obits," à la Mark Twain's, are being peddled mostly by newspapers themselves. When semiannual circulation figures were released recently, newspapers headlined slight losses among eight of the Top 10. But little or no attention was given papers that are growing. Examples:

* USA TODAY, the nation's largest, increased to 2,284,219 daily circulation. It has shown gains every year in its 25-year history.

* The No. 2 Wall Street Journal gained to 2,069,463. Under new owner/boss Rupert Murdoch, it's the most improved newspaper in the country and likely to show significant sharp future increases.

* A dozen other newspapers with circulations of 50,000 or more had gains ranging from 1.21% to 7.61%, including in Baton Rouge, Cincinnati, Mobile, Ala., Munster, Ind., San Jose, Calif., Seattle and Trenton, N.J.

Importantly, newspaper owners and editors have embraced the Internet and now are 24/7 providers of news, information, entertainment and advertising. The hunger for all that is greater than ever in history. That's why newspaper-oriented media companies have a bright future.

So, if you're a news junkie, you'll probably continue to get everything you've been getting from your newspaper. And more.

Remembering Polly Paffilas

In Memoriam:
Polly Paffilas 1921-2005

Memorial Day is an appropriate time to remember our dear friend and colleague, Polly Paffilas. Polly died just three years ago on Thursday, May 26, 2005. The best tribute to Pollly is probably a story written for the May /June 1983 issue of Tower Topics by her friend and co-worker, the late Fran Murphey, to report that Polly had been presented the John S. Knight Award of the Society of Professsional Journalist. Click on the headline go to our Memorial page for Pollly. And then, if your like, add your own comments here.

George Read Murray dies at 69

George Read Murray passed away May 11, 2008 at the age of 69.

He was loved by the Kent community for his writing, story telling, and his generous spirit. He was a founding member and worked for the Kent Natural Foods Cooperative. An accomplished writer, George wrote for the Akron Beacon Journal and then as a freelance writer who explored diverse topics including the nature of consciousness. An active participant in the education of his children, George was also a mentor to young writers in Kent. George loved to tell stories and weave tales from his life experiences.

George is survived by his wife, Cindy Bissell; daughters Saille, Holly, Hannelore (husband Andrew); and granddaughter, Michaela; and sons, Athen and Alder.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, May 25th at Tannery Park in Kent at 3:00 p.m. - please bring a chair. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Standing Rock Cultural Arts, 257 N. Water Street, Kent, OH 44240.
[Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Friday, May 23, 2008, page B7, col. 2]

Leo Osmar dislocates shoulder

Here’s an email from BJ composing room retiree Leo Osmar:

On April 1 I dislocated my right shoulder and tests indicate I will be immobile for up to a year. I have no use of right arm or hand. Anyone who has had shoulder rotor surgery knows my recuperation prognosis. Fortunately I've no physical pain, but also have bladder troubles. Can no longer carry coffee hour at St. Bernard's nor work hot meals. Can no longer visit Peter Maurin Center at will. I cannot drive and have to compute with one hand. Many prayers are welcome. Regards to all retirees who visit the blog.
Leo Osmar
composing room

How McClatchy got Seattle Times shares

How the Blethen family lost 49.5 percent of the Seattle Times Co.

Last week, minority shareholder McClatchy, the Sacramento newspaper chain, said it was willing to sell its not-quite-half slice of the Seattle Times. So how did a locally controlled Northwest newspaper company wind up with a national partner to begin with? The story starts in the 1920s. Click on the headline for an interesting story.

Mail from the daughter of the late Ben James

Here's a nice email from the oldest daughter of the late Ben James, a retired college professor in Lorain, OH:

I was surfing the net this afternoon and found a story about my dad Ben James. It was the story about Benny's Blue Room and his famous practical joke with the telephone in his pocket.

[Go to the post mentioned above]

Thanks for bringing Benny's Blue Room back to my memory.

I don't know if you have any history of Ben's family, but his son Dave Jr. died in 1990 in Cuyahoga Falls, his son Dick lives in Kankakee, IL, his daughter Susan in Temple, TX, Ann in Irving, TX and Trudi, his oldest in Lorain, OH.

His grandsons, Dave's sons live in Macedonia and Parma, Dick's children live in IL, and Trudi's daughter lives in CO.

I am a retired college professor and still think of my father fondly as well as the BJ family. Thanks again for bringing back a long forgotten memory. I will be sure to send copies to my siblings.

Trudi James-Parks
Lorain, OH

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PD reporter among Nieman Fellows

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has named 28 journalists from the United States and abroad to the 71st class of Nieman Fellows. They include print reporters and editors, online journalists, columnists and editorial writers, broadcasters, a photojournalist and a filmmaker.

Bob Giles, Nieman Foundation curator and a 1966 Nieman Fellow, chaired the committee. Giles is a former managing editor of the Beacon Journal.

Established in 1938, the Nieman program is the oldest midcareer fellowship for journalists in the world. The fellowships are awarded to working journalists of accomplishment and promise who come to Harvard University for a year of study, seminars and special events. More than 1,200 journalists from 90 countries have received Nieman Fellowships.

Among those chosen was Andrea Simakis, Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter, who will study U.S. immigration and refugee policy and its impact on how newcomers learn and navigate American culture.

Also selected was Hannah Allam, Cairo bureau chief, McClatchy Newspapers, will study sectarianism within Islam, focusing on Arab-Persian relations and Sunni vs. Shiite doctrine on governance, armed struggle and family law.

Simakis graduated from New York University with honors and a degree in journalism. She worked as a freelancer for The Village Voice and Glamour magazine. Her work for the Voice earned her an award from the Newswoman's Club of New York.

She joined The Plain Dealer in 1999 after completing a year-long Kiplinger Fellowship in public affairs reporting at The Ohio State University, where she honed her investigative reporting and non-fiction writing skills and earned a master's degree in journalism.

Within a year of her arrival in Cleveland, Simakis became the first social services writer for the PD. During her tenure covering the beat, she earned a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her profile of a court-appointed guardian who championed abused and neglected children in one of the most overcrowded juvenile courts in the country. .

In 2002, she moved to the Sunday Magazine, where she specialized in long-form narrative journalism. In 2004, she chronicled the case of Robert Kreischer, whose single well-placed punch landed him in prison for two years. Her two-part-series, "Road to Ruin," exposed injustices that happen in America's courtrooms every day but rarely make the news: botched police investigations, inept legal representation, prosecutorial misconduct, and judges who disregard clear constitutional violations.

The piece moved 2,000 readers to demand -- and win -- Kreischer's release from prison and won her a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for "distinguished service to the American people and the profession of journalism."

In 2006, Simakis joined the Arts & Life staff as a feature writer and authored a series of articles questioning the conviction of Tyrone Noling, on Ohio's death row for gunning down an elderly couple. Her investigation uncovered new and long-buried evidence that pointed to another killer and prompted his attorneys to request a new trial. The articles won her a first place award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for Best Social Justice Reporting.

Recently, she investigated the legal entanglements that plagued a family of Somali refugees trying to navigate life in America. Two members -- girls barely out of their teens -- faced deportation and death if convicted of multiple counts of child abuse for burning children in their care. Simakis discovered that differing child rearing practices, not sadism, led to the crime and that such cultural misunderstandings and collisions are common and continue to dog refugee resettlement across the country.

The U.S. fellows were selected by Amy Nutt, a reporter for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., and a 2005 Nieman Fellow; Marshall Ganz, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Sam Fulwood, Plain Dealeer columnist and a 1994 Nieman Fellow; J. Richard Hackman, Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology, Harvard University; and Giles.

Click on the headline to see details of the fellows.

DelMio to provide content for MSN shopping site

DelMio, the online magazine created by former BJ staffer Diane Evans, got a plug on MSN.com's (Microsoft) shopping site. Delmio will provide expert advice for the site;

DelMio was formed in 2006 as a new media company that is a "merger" of the old-line newspaper business with the new multimedia capabilities. It provides avid readers with a place to join like-minded people on "book explorations" that go beyond the written. pages. DelMio is distributed through public libraries, as a service to their cardholder patrons. DelMio is also a valuable distribution channel for authors and publishers to expose their new books to influential of readers.

DelMio.com is a vibrant online magazine that specializes in books, authors, publishing and library interests. DelMio has a team of experienced professional journalists who dig up information about books and other things so you don’t have to do it. DelMio has daily news feeds updated in RSS, as well as a group of edited blogs. DelMio develops high quality, multimedia content at its home web site and as well as exclusive content for MSN.com.

DelMio experts include founder Diane Evans, consumer writer Mary Ethridge and acclaimed food writer Jane Snow, all three veterans of the former Knight Ridder Newspapers; Anne Brennan, a former Chicago Tribune writer and editor; and Chuck Bowen, international correspondent. DelMio is committed to providing end users with credible, well-researched information they can count on for accuracy.

Click on the headline to see the promotion.

Knight News Challenge 2008 winners announced

LAS VEGAS — Sixteen ideas to fund innovative digital projects around the world were awarded $5.5 million dollars Wednesday from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, accepted one of the awards for a project that will create a technology to give users more information about the origins and sourcing of digital content.

Berners-Lee's project is a partnership between the Media Standards Trust and the UK-based Web Science Research Initiative, of which he is a director.

This is the second year of the $25 million Knight News Challenge, which funds digital information innovations that transform community life.

Announced at the Interactive Media Conference in Las Vegas, this year's projects will touch people in rural India, the townships of South Africa and on college campuses across the United States, among other places. The winners' ideas include:

* Using the Web to solicit funding from the public to pay for investigative journalism projects
* Creating software that allows a computer to become a digital radio transmitter, significantly reducing the cost of setting up community news stations in India
* Blogging to discuss the idea of interactive games where students measure and track their personal demand on natural resources.

The prizes ranged from $15,000 to $876,000, and were given to individuals, philanthropic organizations and for-profit businesses, including the Bakersfield Californian newspaper. Ten winners were from the United States, and six were from Canada, England, Lithuania, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Russia.

"Just as the Knight brothers used their newspapers to help create the conversations about improving life in their communities, we look forward to these projects that use new information tools to inform and inspire community," said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation.

In 2007, the Knight News Challenge awarded $12 million to 25 digital innovators.

This year, several projects focus on bridging the digital divide, such as one to deliver news by text message to inexpensive cell phones used in developing countries. Often these mobile phones are the only modern communications devices in a community.

Other projects sought to develop tools that make it easy for anyone, not just technology specialists, to join the digital conversation.

The number of applicants for Knight News Challenge increased 82 percent in its second year, to 3,000. The percentage of foreign applicants increased to 40 percent from 15 percent in 2007. The contest was advertised in 10 languages. It also featured a special "Young Creators" category to reward the ideas of those who are 25 and younger.

Six of this year's winners were "Young Creators."

Click on the headline to see winners and other information about the Challenge awards.

Even dozen BJ retirees at monthly lunch

Click on the headline to see photos of the lunch bunch

There were so many at the monthly gathering of BJ retirees at Papa Joe’s restaurant – 12 – that everyone had to move over and squeeze in late arrivals at a round table that usually has a half-dozen or so. The 12 ties the September total. There were fewer attendees at all the gatherings in between.

At the 1 p.m. second Wednesday of the month lunch were Cal Deshong, Don Roese, Gene McClelland, Armand Lear, Al Hunsicker, Carl Nelson, Watson Blanton, wife Rosetta and their friend/driver, Lonnie Thomas, Bob Pell Sr. and his son, Bob Jr., and John Olesky.

You're welcome to join the laughter at Papa Joe's, where Portage Trail and Akron-Peninsula Road meet. 1 p.m., second Wednesday of each month.

New Guild Prez says 'too much pessimism'

Report by Joe Strupp, Editor & Pubisher

NEW YORK Challenger Bernie Lunzer, whose election as Newspaper Guild president is expected to be certified on Thursday, said he wants to have the union "actively involved in the direction of the industry."

Lunzer, who made his first comments about the election to E&P, said he was "pleased with the numbers" that appear to give him a sizeable victory, adding "we think it gives us what we need to go ahead and do some of the things we promised in the campaign."

Lunzer's comments followed the release of ballot data on the Guild Web site that indicates Lunzer had at least 3,630 votes out of 6,367 cast, with incumbent Linda Foley taking 2,737. In accordance with Guild rules, the election is not final until it is certified on Thursday. But with a nearly 900-vote lead and only some 600 ballots outstanding, Lunzer's victory is all but assured. His running mates, secretary-treasurer nominee Carol Rothman and international chair candidate Connie Knox, are also expected to win.

"I based my campaign on the fact that we need to have a change in approach stylistically," Lunzer said. "We are confident there is a future here and that we can get guild members involved in that future." Lunzer added that "there is way too much pessimism in the industry. We still have various products, the brands, the things we stand for. We've got more readers than we’ve ever had before. It is not about increasing eyeballs, it is about increasing revenue."

Foley had no comment on the election.

McClatchy open to sell Seattle Times

This report from the Editor & Publisher staff:

NEW YORK McClatchy Co. Chairman, President, and CEO Gary Pruitt said the company is open to selling the 49.5% share of the Seattle Times Co. it acquired as part of the purchase of Knight Ridder Inc. in 2006.

The revelation came in a Sacramento Bee story covering Pruitt's Tuesday remarks at McClatchy's annual shareholders' meeting in Sacramento.

"Long-term, we would be open to selling" the stake, Pruitt said in response to a shareholder's query, noted Dale Kasler's Bee article.

Pruitt said he has told the Blethen family, which owns the rest of the Times Co., that McClatchy is interested in selling the minority share at some point. McClatchy has repeatedly written down the value of its stake in the firm -- it now values its share at $12.1 million, down from $19.3 million at the end of 2007.

Also, Pruitt tried to reassure shareholders Tuesday that the company is on the right track despite falling profits, revenue, and stock price. He said McClatchy, by focusing heavily on Internet operations, is poised for recovery once the economy improves.

"We are confident we will work through this transition," Pruitt added.

Jennifer's story is a Mother's Day story

Jennifer’s story, well written, occupied a large portion of page A1 of the Beacon Journal on Sunday.

The story by Beacon Journal staff writer Kim Hone-McMahan, however, was as much a Mother’s Day story as it was about the adoption of Jennifer. It was a Mother’s Day story written by a mother (Kim) to tell how her son’s mission trip to the Ukraine brought Jennifer to a new life in Green.

In the summer of 2006, son Alex returned from a two-week mission trip to Ukraine. He and a group from Canton's Malone College had gone there to work with children living in some of the orphanages.

In tears, he vowed never to forget the boys and girls he left behind. Most would have very short lives.

A staggering 70 percent of orphans, according to one report, will die on the streets within five years of aging out of the system at about 16, victims of such things as suicide, violence and drug and alcohol abuse.

He ached for the children. The memories of their giggles made him chuckle. But their eyes, filled with longing, haunted him.

''The poorest of the poor here are rich to those kids,'' he said, dropping his head into the palms of his hands. Though Alex didn't know what it was like to be orphaned, he understood loss.

Three years earlier, he had unsuccessfully tried to revive his sister, Brooke, who had died during a seizure. The experience will forever be etched in his memory, the love for her forever imprinted on his heart.

''I just don't know what to do for them,'' he said of the orphans, his voice shaking. ''I'll be back there someday. If not before, it will be the day I adopt.''

For months, Kim and husband Chris discussed the children Alex had visited. In a country the size of Texas, there are some 100,000 children in institutions. Though we felt we were too old to adopt an infant, we agreed to bring a 10- to 12-year-old child into our family. Most youngsters that old don't find their forever families.

''We can never replace our sweet Brooke, but we feel we have more love to give,'' ChrisI wrote in a journal two days before Christmas 2006.

For the first few months in the U.S. , she grieved terribly for her Ukrainian friends, who were like siblings to her.She has turned 14 since arriving and had a party with her peers to celebrate.

At Green schools, she is one of about 150 students in the district whose native language is not English, and one of 50 receiving ESL services (English as a second language). While adolescents usually take longer than younger children to learn English, Jennifer is something of a star in her linguistic abilities.

It seems the folks at the orphanage were correct: She is very smart, and funny. And troubles like reactive attachment disorder, commonly found in orphaned and abandoned children, are nonexistent.

She's busy perfecting her English while learning about the Italian Renaissance and deep-ocean trenches. She's struggling to make sense of middle school social dramas. And, like many other young teens, she takes dance lessons, goes to movies and text-messages her pals.

In a word, she is a joy.

You will want to click on the headline to read all of this moving story by a mother on Mother’s Day. God bless you, Kim

Bob Abbott on Rx situation

Re exploring another lawyer's view of the situation:

As of yet I personally haven't searched to get another legal opinion of our situation with the BJ. And, at this point it will probably be a month or so before I get back into it. I feel I need to take a break from all this...it's been rather a chore...but I don't regret having explored our options (or lack of) to this point.

This message is to suggest that anybody that does make a contact with counsel to keep me up to speed, and I would even go so far as to suggest that I possibly could give you some ideas for your first initial contact in regard to this matter. I do have a pretty good idea of what they (counsel) might want to know at that first meeting...and if it's a free session you definitely would want to present everything that's possibly relevant.

And I can put you in contact with some individuals that have a different situation than I had...this could make all the difference in the world.

Feel free to pick my brain and get any information that could be of use.

Those that were part of our "slush" fund be aware that I finally have cleared all the paperwork, bills, etc. that were relevant to our probe of the Rx problem. The good news is that the lawyer didn't charge us for the latter phone calls and his counsel on different approaches that we might have been able to take. Doing most of the legwork myself and then bouncing ideas off him definitely worked out well...with no charge to our account. He was very sympathetic to our situation...and said it wasn't right (the way we were being treated) but the BJ was pushing all the loopholes as far as they could and they are keeping in mind how the courts have been handing down decisions. And it hasn't been to the advantage of the working man.

And of course when I was ready to make copies of all the paperwork you will be receiving my scanner/copier decided to quit talking to my computer (Murphy's law). But the problem was finally resolved and the checks (small though they be) will be in the mail early next week. Where have I heard that before?! And, as promised, you will have an accounting of every penny.

This effort wasn't in vain...we learned a lot and the BJ is aware that we aren't going to just roll over and let them get away with anything they desire to do. And I hope this might be just a start to maybe getting them to finally own up to their promises to their retirees and former employees.

All the news that's fit to click

It had to happan. ABC News is announcing a new broadband service which allows streaming video of the news.

So what's the onlline equivalent of the famous New York Times motto? Why it's ABC's

All the news that's fit to click

PD gets 220 e-mails on rape story

When Joanna Connors of the Plain Dealer agreed to tell the story of her 1984 rape in the paper's pages, she expected strong reaction, Joe Strupp reports in Editor & Publisher.

But even she was surprised at how many of the 220 or so e-mails and voicemails responding to the special section in Sunday's paper about her experience were from women who had been raped, but had never told anyone.

"Two people at the paper came up to me and said they had been raped and one had never told anyone," Connors, 54, told E&P.. "So many of the people in the voice mails and e-mails said so, too. We really absorb that message [as victims] that it is uncomfortable for everyone." Connors was actually raped while on the job during her stint as a Plain Dealer theater critic. She writes in the first of several stories that ran Sunday about being attacked at the student theater of nearby Case Western University by a man who cornered her in the empty backstage area.

The story and a video can be found on Cleveland.com or click on the headline to read all of Strupp's account.

Keeping up with Mark Dawidziak

A striking photo of Mark Dawidziak in the Beacon Journal prompted this update on the former BJ staffer who is now the Plain Dealer TV critic.

This is about Mark’s serious writing which is largely theatrical and literary.

His next book has a June publication date. The title is "The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Dracula," and the publisher is Continuum, a New York-London company that specializes in literary studies. The first half of the book focuses on Bram Stoker and his Dracula novel. The second half looks at the character's cultural impact, examining the plays, movies and everything from Count Chocula cereal to the number-obsessed Count on "Sesame Street."

It is 192 pages. The list price is $19.95 but you can find it online for $16.95

And now, on to Mark Twain. Dawidziak fans have followed his Largely Literary Society for six years as they performed the three-person presentation of
of 'A Christmas Carol' at Stan Hywet Hall, Coach House Theatre, Greystone, the Kent Stage and various other area locations.

The next performance of the society is what prompted th BJ publication of the Mark Twain photo. A Largely Literary Evening dinner and play fund-raiser in support of Copley Township residents Hilda and Kurt Bromley's Books for Africa Library Project is set for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the St. Bernard Catholic Church social hall in downtown Akron.

The event, hosted by the Largely Literary Theater Company, will feature a program of Mark Twain sketches and poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. Admission is free but donations are encouraged to support the Bromleys in their effort to establish libraries in Ghana and Liberia.

For information, call 330-666-6816.

In the meantime, the Bromleys would like to remind you of a Mark Twain quote:

''When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also . . . books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.''

Dawidziak keeps in touch with many current BJ folk, and former BJ staffers, many in the PD newsroom.

Note: The photo used by the Beacon Journal was cropped for emphasis. The uncropped version is shown here.

46 trips and counting

I finally got around to compiling a list of my trips since my 1996 retirement from the Beacon Journal.

The total? 46 trips.

Trips with Monia before she died: 18.

Trips with Paula: 23.

Trips with other family members: 5.

As many of you know, the trips vary from West Virginia to Florida (a lot of each) to China to Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, some more than once), Hawaii, Canada, and cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean (Mexico and the usual blue-water nations). We've also taken week-long trips through California and Michigan and New York State and Virginia and New England and enjoyed stays in Fripp Island, SC, and Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA, and a 3-week journey through Arizona and New Mexico.

And, of course, had reunions with former Beacon Journal co-workers Terry and Cecily Dray, Don Bandy, Dave and Gina White in Florida, and made week-long vacations out of flights to West Virginia University football games (the Colorado game will be the 2008 season's Rockies vacation week or so). The Mountaineer games in Mountaineer Field are not included in the 46 trips (6 or 7 home games per season).

We're looking for another trip (with the economy so bad, the prices are tumbling rapidly, almost by the week) to take as soon as my knee rehab makes it possible for me to get around easily (a lot of these places have hills and lots of steps). I'm doing my PT without an instructor now, but using the same equipment at Akron General's Tallmadge PT place as I did with an instructor. I just follow the sheet she gave me and set the same equipment on the same settings as before. Paula and I also try to walk 1 to 1.5 miles on days when I don't go to the Tallmadge PT, on North Avenue just off the Tallmadge Circle.

I'm determined to enjoy my life till the day I join Monia at Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Cuyahoga Falls. Thanks to Paula, my personal travel guide, it's been a great run.

Have most forgotton May 4? Ritter asks

Scott Ritter, former U.N. weapons inspector, said Sunday he wonders why the observance of May 4, 1970 shootings of four Kent State students was not packed. with people.

The shooting deaths 38 years ago of four students by the Ohio National Guard need to be seen as a gift — a lesson — to the entire United States, Rtter said. But if the May 4 commemoration continues to have low attendance — the event was attended by about 400 people — and Americans refuse to read and understand their U.S. Constitution, then those lost lives will have been for nothing, keynote speaker Scott Ritter said.

''While I applaud those who are here today, I have to ask, why isn't this hillside covered with the citizens of this country?'' Ritter asked. ''Where are the students of Kent State? Where are the citizens of this community? Where are the citizens of Ohio? Where is the media?''

The program in which Ritter and others spoke started at noon on the campus commons, near the university's memorial and markers that show where four students were killed and nine wounded on May 4, 1970, as they protested the Vietnam War and presence of the National Guard on campus.

While the event is based on the shootings 38 years ago, many of the attendees also were protesting the ongoing war in Iraq.

Ritter said whatever their feelings about the Iraq war, people should never denigrate the service provided by the Americans fighting there because they are willing to die for us.

''These are men and women who have taken an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'' he said.

''Have we done everything we can to ensure the sacrifice that they are prepared to make is in a cause worthy of the sacrifice?'' Ritter said. ''And I will tell you, no, we have not.''

The rights of American freedom of speech and assembly were trampled ''on this very spot,'' shortly after students buried a copy of the U.S. Constitution near where the memorial stands to protest their government's actions, Ritter said. Those protesters were defending the Constitution, he said.

Click on the headline to read the full Beacon Journal story by Jim Mackimmon.

Blogger Note: May 4 has not been forgotten by the BJ retirees blog and website. You can go to the Commentary section of our website anytime and read the section on Remembering May 4. There you will find links to hundreds of photos by BJ photographer Paul Tople, photos and cartoons by retired BJ staffer Chuck Ayers, a Chronology by the Kent State University Library and a list of collections in KSU archives, the great John Filo photo and a link to Al Canfora’s website.