Kim McMahan to replace Jewell as columnist

Kim McMahan

Kim McMahan will replace Jewell Cardwell, among the six who took the latest BJ buyout, as a columnist, beginning May 28.

Kim posted:

“It is with great honor that I will be succeeding retired columnist Jewell Cardwell at the Beacon Journal. I'm not certain how to follow someone so beloved as Jewell, and the late Fran Murphey before her, but what an honor.

“Yikes!”

Kim Hone-McMahan is married to Chris McMahan.

Black Keys copycats? Hardly

Far from being a White Stripes copycat, the Black Keys are in a world of their own.

So writes Alexis Petridis of the Manchester Guardian about drummer Patrick Carney, son of former (as of today’s work shift) BJ reporter Jim Carney, and band partner Dan Auerbach, the Firestone High friends who went from the garage to the Grammys and needed an extra van to haul the awards away.

White Stripes’ Jack White, angry that estranged wife Karen Elson wants to send their children to same school attended by Auerbach’s daughter, calls Dan “that asshole.” Maybe White was looking in the mirror?

Petridis reviews The Black Keys’ “Turn Blue” album. 

Patrick and Dan will begin their Turn Blue World tour Sept. 5 in Columbus.

To read Petridis’ glowing account of the Black Keys’ latest album and the copycat charge, click on http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/08/the-black-keys-turn-blue-review  

BJ sendoff for Jewell, Dave, Jim, Bill and Olga

Fond farewell today to latest BJ 6-pack exodus

Jewell Cardell on her final day at the BJ

Cheryl Scott Sheinin, a BJ Finance Dept. retiree after 45 years at Old Blue and the wife of former BJer Neil Sheinin, offers her congratulations to the latest 6-pack to leave the BJ today, via the buyoutsl.

“Thinking of you wonderful people that have left home for their last day at the Beacon Journal. You had terrific careers in making our editorial paper Ohio's best. Congratulations on this new chapter in your lives. The editorial department will not be the same. You did you best work, loved your jobs (I hope) and served the public with news and meaningful articles that touched all of us.

Best to all of you, Jewell Cardwell, James Carney, Dave Scott, Olga Reswow, Laura Ofobike and Bill Lilley. You've done one hell of a job for our newspaper and we thank you.

Black Keys begin world tour Sept. 5

The Black Keys, formed by two Firestone High graduates into Grammy winners, will begin their Turn Blue World Tour Sept. 5 in Columbus at the Schottenstein Center on the Ohio State campus. Tomorrow Patrick Carney, son of former (after today) BJ reporter Jim Carney, and Dan Auerbach will take their tour to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland the next night.

Jim will be free to attend the Cleveland performance, and even the one in Columbus is he hurries.

The Turn Blue tour schedule:

September 5 | Columbus, OH | Schottenstein Center *
September 6 | Cleveland, OH | Quicken Loans Arena *
September 7 | Grand Rapids, MI | Van Andel Arena *
September 9 | Milwaukee, WI | BMO Harris Bradley Center *
September 10 | Louisville, KY | KFC Yum! Center *
September 12 | Detroit, MI | Joe Louis Arena *
September 13 | Pittsburgh, PA | CONSOL Energy Center *
September 14 | Rochester, NY | Blue Cross Arena *
September 16 | Toronto, ON | Air Canada Centre *
September 18 | Montreal, QC | Bell Centre *
September 20 | Philadelphia, PA | Wells Fargo Center *
September 21 | Boston, MA | TD Garden *
September 24 | Brooklyn, NY | Barclays Center *
September 25 | Washington, DC | Verizon Center *
September 27 | Chicago, IL | United Center *
October 24 | Minneapolis, MN | Target Center †
October 25 | Winnipeg, MB | MTS Centre †
October 27 | Calgary, AB | Scotiabank Saddledome †
October 28 | Edmonton, AB | Rexall Place †
October 30 | Vancouver, BC | Pacific Coliseum †
October 31 | Portland, OR | Moda Center †
November 1 | Seattle, WA | KeyArena †
November 9 | San Diego, CA | Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl †
November 10 | Phoenix, AZ | US Airways Center †
November 12 | Salt Lake City, UT | Maverik Center †
November 13 | Denver, CO | Pepsi Center †
November 15 | Houston, TX | Toyota Center †
November 16 | Dallas,TX | American Airlines Center †
December 4 | Baltimore, MD | Baltimore Arena ‡
December 5 | Raleigh, NC | PNC Arena ‡
December 6 | Richmond, VA | Richmond Coliseum ‡
December 8 | Nashville, TN | Bridgestone Arena ‡
December 9 | St. Louis, MO | Scottrade Center ‡
December 11 | Atlanta, GA | Philips Arena ‡
December 12 | Charlotte, NC | Time Warner Cable Arena ‡
December 13 | Greenville, SC | Bon Secours Wellness Arena ‡
December 15 | Sunrise, FL | BB&T Center ‡
December 16 | Tampa, FL | Tampa Bay Times Forum ‡
December 17 | Orlando, FL | Amway Center ‡
December 19 | Austin, TX | Frank Erwin Center ‡
December 20 | Tulsa, OK | BOK Center ‡
December 21 | Kansas City, MO | Sprint Center ‡

* Special guest Cage The Elephant
† Special guest Jake Bugg
‡ Special guest St. Vincent

Pre-sale begins Tuesday, May 13th at 10am local. General on sale starts Friday, May 16th at 10am local. For access to the pre-sale, pre-order Turn Blue from www.theblackkeys.com. Please note that pre-orders from iTunes or any other retailers will not grant access to the tour pre-sale.

To prevent scalping, paperless ticketing will be utilized for all floor seats and the majority of the lower bowl seats. 

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

Jim Carney’s BJ farewell post

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

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

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

"Too much focosity, as my Dad would say.

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

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

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

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

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

"Gentlemen, start your engines."

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

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

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

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

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

Newspaper leaders: Find local ‘passion topics’

Mizell Stewart III

Newspaper management around the country is trying to find and concentrate on “passion topics” in the community.

At last week’s Newspaper Association of American conference in Denver, which drew 1,000 participants, former Beacon Journal managing editor Mizell Stewart III, vice president/content of the newspaper division of E.W. Scripps, said that the 11 Scripps dailies have been working on something similar, “franchise topics” — three or four for larger papers like those in Memphis or Naples, Florida, two at smaller papers.

Stewart said that editors and newsroom teams have used consumer research to identify “what can we do that no one else in the market can do.”

The theme: The general store approach – a bit of something for everybody – doesn’t work any more.

Just looking at the BJ’s A1 front page shows you that local news is the hook to draw in readers who otherwise would stay on the Internet. That’s what many BJ newsroom retirees, in particular Tom Moore, have been preaching for years: Local news, local news, local news.

Potential newspaper readers can get everything else elsewhere, and hours or days before the newspapers get around to printing it.

Twinsburg native and Bowling Green graduate Mizell worked in Tallahassee, Florida before coming to the BJ in 2006.

Bruce Winges succeeded Mizell as the highest ranking newsroom person in 2007, when Bruce was named BJ vice president/editor and Mizell became Evansville, Indiana Courier & Press editor for one of Scripps’ newspapers. In 2012 Mizell was named vice president of content for the newspaper group of E.W. Scripps, which is based in Cincinnati.

Louisville native and University of Kentucky graduate Winges previously worked in Huntington, West Virginia. Bruce and wife Bonnie Bolden, a West Virginia University graduate and a former Beacon Journal department editor, live in Cuyahoga Falls.

To read the News About Mizell Stewart web site article, click on http://newsle.com/article/0/133734478/

Since attending the NAA conference in Denver, Mizell had a detached retina. He's been cleared to return to work and expects his vision to be normal in two or three weeks.

19/43 gets new GM from Nashville

Dominic Mancuso

Dominic Mancuso, general manager of THREE TV stations in Nashville, will replace the retiring Bill Applegate as vice president and general manager at Raycom Media's two Cleveland stations, WOIO Channel 19 and WUAB Channel 43. He will start Tuesday, May 20.

Joliet, Illinois native Mancuso is general manager of Fox’s WZTV, MyNet’s WUXP and CW’s WNAB. He came to Nashville from Chicago.

Fox’s WJW Channel 8 is looking for a new president and general manager because Greg Easterly, who had that position since 2007, left for the same titles with Chicago's WGN Channel 9.

To read the article by Mark Dawidziak, who came to the Beacon Journal in 1983 from the Kingsport, Tennesee paper and left in 1999 for the PD, click on http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2014/05/dominic_mancuso_named_new_general_manager_at_channel_19_and_channel_43.html#incart_river

5 out as BJ works on losing 2^nd 1,000 years of experience

The BJ buyouts, which include a year’s pay, today went to columnist Jewell Cardwell, Jim Carney, Bill Lilley, Dave Scott and Olga Reswow.

One exempt (non-Guild) choice also was made, probably chief editorial writer Laura Ofobike. 
 Before the first round of layoffs at the Beacon Journal in 2001, the bargaining unit had 197 full and part-time members. Today’s departures reduced that number to less than 60, or about 30% of the 2001 newsroom staff.

The rapid demise of the BJ began in 2001 when about five centuries of experience walked out the door on the same day. Gone were sports columnist Tom Melody, chief  artist Art Krummel, the copy desk’s late Sandy Levenson, columnist Mickey Porter, Features Department editor Joan Rice, superb writer the late Bill Bierman, Reference Librarian Diane Lynch, copy editor George Davis, editorial board member Tim Hayes, Metro reporters Bill Canterbury, Bob Hoiles and Dennis McEaneney,

Mark Braykovich, reporter Barb Mudrak Galloway, columnist Steve Love, Jim Quinn, religion writer  Laura Haferd and Terence Oliver.

In 2006 24 left with 335 years of service, including Bonnie Bolden, wife of today’s editor, Bruce Winges; clerk Barbara Albrecht, artist Dennis Balogh, reporters Gary Estwick and Mary Ethridge, columnist Diane Papparone Evans, copy editor Tim Good, reporter Andale Gross, copy editor Erin Hill, reporter Gloria Irwin, copy editors Jim Kavanagh, who went to CNN, and Jody Kraner, reporter Delano Massey, copy editor Kim Profant, reporter Tom Reed, photographers Robin Sallie and Lindsay Sample, food writer Jane Snow, reporter Kathy Spitz, reporter, 22 years; Chiffon Staebler, copy editor Debbie Stock Kiefer, editorial writer Sarah Vradenburg, reporter Judie Wallace and photographer Jocelyn Williams.

Newsroom managers laid off or took voluntary resignations besides Bonnie were Dave Wilson, David Hertz, Susan Kirkman, Michael Needs  and Debra Adams Simmons.

In 2008 there were 18 departures with 273 years of service, including city hall reporter Carl Chancellor, deputy Metro editor Keith McKnight, Metro editor Ann Sheldon Mezger, columnist David Giffels, cartoonist Chip Bok and classic music critic Elaine Guregian.

That’s a thousand years of service, and far more than that in experience since few began their newspaper careers at the BJ, in just three lopoffs.

Some just switched from the BJ to the Plain Dealer.

There’s not much Beacon Blue blood left to be let.

NY Times enthusiastic about Giffels’ latest book

Former BJ columnist David Giffels got a vibrant review from the New York Times for his latest book about Akron, “The Hard Way on Purpose.”

A sample of the prose from the NYT:

“Like balls thunking from a bowling alley return chute, every essay eventually lands in the same, cumulatively redundant place: the assertion that Akron should exalt in its defeats rather than cringe.”

To read the New York Times Review by Beth Macy, author of the award-winning book, “Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local — and Helped Save an American Town,” click on http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/books/review/the-hard-way-on-purpose-by-david-giffels.html?_r=0

David and wife Gina have two children,  Evan and Lia. 

David was part of the 2008 BJ exodus when the former John S. Knight newspaper lost about four centuries of experience in one day. David became an English professor at the University of Akron. He has written four books.

At least 12 sign for BJ buyouts

With Monday’s deadline approaching a dozen people have applied for the BJ newsroom buyouts, according to our sources.

Since management’s original agenda was to get six Guild and one exempt to take the buyouts, which include a year’s salary, management must decide whether to take all 12 – or any others who sign up by Monday’s deadline – or choose from among the applicants.

The consensus is that reporter Jim Carney and Jewell Cardwell will be at the top of the buyout grants.

The buyout application form specifies that if the applicant puts anything negative out about the BJ, or details how it operates, that their buyout offer will be rescinded. A gag order is part of the price of departure.

Word about the eventual winners of the buyout lottery should creep out late Monday or on Tuesday.

A previous BJ Alums blog article listed the buyout applicants as:

Kathy Antoniotti – Pets column, southern Summit/northern Stark reporter.

Carol Biliczky (Levandoski) - Higher education reporter, Sunday community news.

Jewell Cardwell – Slice of Life columnist.

Jim Carney – General assignment, military affairs reporter.

Bill Lilley - Former sports writer, now copy editor.

Ed Meyer – Courts and crime reporter who came to the BJ as a sports writer.

Dave Scott – Regional issues reporter and former deputy Business editor.

Joe Thomas – National editor.

Olga Reswow – Copy editor.

MAYBE Laura Ofobike, chief editorial writer.

Happy birthday to Stuart & Ott !!!

Happy birthday today to Stuart Warner, one-time hat-happy columnist for the BJ who must be wearing cowboy hats now since he works for the Arizona Republic, along with his wife, Debbie VanTassel, another who left the BJ for the PD and then for the West.

Stuart donned a hat in his video to show you how to make a mint julep. As a Kentucky boy, Stuart figures he has to be the expert. Just check out his Facebook page. Slurp!

And on Monday, May, wish retired BJ photographer a happy birthday. You know Ott: The man who’s taken a million pictures, at least.