Bingham wrote of newspaper demise, daughter says

Emily Bingham, daughter of Barry Bingham Jr. who ran the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky.,from 1971 to 1986 and great-grandaughter of the man who bought the newspaper during World War I, wrote an article March 28 for Newsweek with the catch line:

My father, a third-generation newspaper publisher, warned of the industry's demise. None of us listened.

Click on the headline to read her article.

Bingham is a historian in Louisville. Her next book is a jazz-age story about art, money, sexuality and her great-aunt Henrietta Worth Bingham.

[Thanks to Marv Katz who found the article for us.]

What happens when there is no paper on doorsteps

A New York Times story describes what it was like in Detroit on Monday when no newspaper landed on doorsteps:

DETROIT — Maybe once a year, a city has a news day as heavy as the one that just hit Detroit: The White House forced out the chairman of General Motors, word leaked that the administration wanted Chrysler to hitch its fortunes to Fiat, and Michigan State University’s men’s basketball team reached the Final Four, which will be held in Detroit.

All of this news would have landed on hundreds of thousands of Motor City doorsteps and driveways on Monday morning, in the form of The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

Would have, that is, except that Monday — of all days — was the long-planned first day of the newspapers’ new strategy for surviving the economic crisis by ending home delivery on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Instead, on those days, they are directing readers to their Web sites and offering a truncated print version at stores, newsstands and street boxes.

“This morning, I felt like something was missing,” said Nancy Nester, 51, a program coordinator at a traumatic brain injury center who is from West Bloomfield and has subscribed to both papers for four years. “There was this feeling of emptiness.”

She did not even bother to pick up the condensed print versions that were offered free on Monday. “I don’t have time to stop at the store,” she said. “That’s why I have home delivery.”

To Carol Banas, a retired city planner and longtime Free Press reader, the idea of not having a printed paper is unimaginable. “I’m at the age where I like my newspapers in hand,” said Ms. Banas, 56, who read a hard copy of Monday’s abbreviated Free Press in an Einstein Brothers Bagels shop in Royal Oak. “I know that’s English online, but it’s not the same.”

On Monday, The News and The Free Press, which share business functions under a joint operating agreement, distributed more than half a million free copies of their condensed print editions, but they will begin charging (50 cents, as always) on Tuesday. The Free Press, the larger of the papers, will still make home deliveries on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and The News, which does not have a Sunday issue, will deliver on Thursdays and Fridays.

They have been heavily promoting not just their Web sites, but also online “e-editions” that look just like the printed papers. The e-editions have been open to everyone, but executives say that soon, only paying customers will be able to see them. For a day, at least, there was no doubt about the demand: the computers delivering the e-editions could not keep up on Monday morning, and many people were unable to load them.

“We had an overwhelming — literally overwhelming — number of people trying to get onto the e-edition site this morning, and it’s gratifying on one hand, but it slowed things down,” said Jonathan Wolman, editor and publisher of The News, which is owned by MediaNews Group.

The papers went to great effort to prepare readers, printing warnings and guides to the new format, but not everyone got the message. “A lot of people were prepped for it, and yet we’ve also been hearing from folks who were surprised that today was the day,” Mr. Wolman said.

With profits shrinking fast, newspapers are grasping for the formula that will ensure survival, and a few have decided to save on printing and distribution by publishing only on the most profitable days of the week — potentially a step toward an all-digital future. The Detroit papers are not going quite that far, but clearly the impetus is the same. Executives have called it a calculated gamble, but they say that Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays account for more than 80 percent of their advertising revenue.

About 50,000 people tried to click on the e-editions Monday, five times as many as usual, said David Hunke, chief executive of the Detroit Media Partnership. And squeezing all of the day’s news into a 32-page print edition “certainly tested our theories on design and editing.”

Click on the headline to read more.

Newspapers that have cut circulation days

Associated Press

Some of the daily newspapers that have reduced publication days since last year:

ARIZONA:
-- Douglas Dispatch -- Formerly The Daily Dispatch, went from five to three days a week in August.
-- East Valley Tribune -- In January, suburban Phoenix newspaper scaled back from seven days to Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It also became a free publication delivered to four growing communities, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek; Scottsdale and Tempe dropped from delivery zone.

ARKANSAS:
-- Blytheville Courier News -- Dropped Mondays.
-- The Daily World, Helena-West Helena -- Dropped Thursdays.

CALIFORNIA:
-- The Davis Enterprise -- Dropped Mondays.
-- The Gilroy Dispatch -- Scaled back last year to Tuesdays and Fridays, instead of five days a week.
-- Hollister Free Lance -- Scaled back last year to Tuesdays and Fridays, instead of five days a week. Dropped Fridays later in the year.
-- Palo Alto Daily News -- Free newspaper dropped Mondays last year.
-- The Examiner, San Francisco -- Reduced home delivery to Thursdays and Sundays, although free newspaper available in news racks on other days.
-- San Mateo Daily News -- Free newspaper dropped Tuesdays last year.
-- Daily Sound, Santa Barbara -- Free newspaper dropped Mondays in February.
-- Sierra Sun, Truckee -- Scaled back in January to Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It had largely been a weekly until it expanded to twice weekly in 2003 and to five days a week in 2006.
- Tahoe Daily Tribune, South Lake Tahoe -- Scaled back in February to Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, instead of Monday through Friday.
-- Register-Pajaronian, Watsonville -- Scaled back in February to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from six times a week.

COLORADO:
-- The Aspen Times -- Dropped Sundays in January.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:
-- The Washington Examiner -- Reduced home delivery to Thursdays and Sundays, although free newspaper available in news racks on other days.
-- The Washington Times -- Dropped Saturdays last year.

GEORGIA:
-- Statesboro Herald -- After becoming a seven-day daily in 1982, dropped Mondays in January.

IDAHO:
-- Post Register, Idaho Falls -- Dropped Mondays in March.
-- Standard Journal, Rexburg -- Scaled back in March to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, dropping Thursdays and Fridays.

ILLINOIS:
-- Benton Evening News -- Dropped Saturdays in February.\
-- The Carmi Times -- Dropped Wednesdays in March.
-- Du Quoin Evening Call -- Dropped Saturdays in February.-- Eldorado Daily Journal -- Dropped Saturdays in February.
-- The Courier News, Elgin -- Dropped Saturdays and switched to tabloid format in January.
-- The Journal-Standard, Freeport -- Dropped Mondays in February.
-- Kane County Chronicle, Geneva -- Dropped Mondays and switched to tabloid format in March.
-- The Daily Register, Harrisburg -- Dropped Saturdays in February.
-- Star Courier, Kewanee -- Dropped Mondays last year.
-- Macomb Journal -- Dropped Mondays in January
-- The Marion Daily Republican -- Dropped Saturdays in October.
-- Daily Review Atlas, Monmouth -- Dropped Mondays last summer.
-- The Daily Leader, Pontiac -- Dropped Fridays.
-- The Daily American, West Frankford -- Dropped Saturdays in February.

INDIANA:
-- The Brazil Times -- Dropped Tuesdays in January.
-- Banner Graphic, Greencastle -- Dropped Tuesdays in January.
-- Daily Reporter, Greenfield -- Dropped Fridays in December.
-- Rushville Republican -- Dropped Mondays last year.

IOWA:
-- The Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs -- Dropped Mondays in February.
-- The Courier, Waterloo-Cedar Falls -- Dropped Saturdays in January.

KANSAS:
-- Kansas City Kansan -- Went entirely online in January after scaling back to two editions a week, from five, last year.
-- The Southwest Times, Liberal -- Formerly the Southwest Daily Times, scaled back early last year to Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, dropping Tuesdays and Thursdays. The publisher and many employees left in protest and began the High Plains Daily Leader, printing Sunday through Friday.
-- McPherson Sentinel -- Dropped Mondays late last year.
-- The Ottawa Herald -- Dropped Fridays in February.
-- Parsons Sun -- Dropped Mondays in July.

KENTUCKY:
-- Georgetown News-Graphic -- Scaled back in February to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, instead of Tuesday through Friday and Sunday. The newspaper had increased from three to five days a week in August 2006.
-- Appalachian News-Express, Pikeville -- Dropped from five days a week to three days a week in March.

MARYLAND:
-- The Frederick News-Post -- Will drop Mondays after this week.

MASSACHUSETTS
-- The Christian Science Monitor -- The Boston-based national newspaper's final issue as a daily was Friday. Subscribers should receive the first weekly newspaper as early as this Friday. The Monitor also is starting a daily e-mail newsletter for a separate paid subscription, while maintaining its free Web site.

MICHIGAN:
-- The Ann Arbor News -- Ceasing operations in July after 174 years, replaced by a Web-focused AnnArbor.com, which plans printed newspaper on Thursdays and Sundays.
-- The Bay City Times -- Will print only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, instead of seven days, beginning June 1.
-- The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press -- Beginning Monday, both papers will reduce home delivery to Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and produce slimmer editions for sale at newsstands on the other days. Because The News does not publish on Sundays, subscribers will get the Free Press that day.
-- The Flint Journal -- Will print only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, instead of seven days, beginning June 1.
-- The Daily Tribune, Royal Oak -- Scaled back late last year to Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, dropping Mondays and Tuesdays.
-- The Saginaw News -- Will print only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, instead of seven days, beginning June 1.

MINNESOTA:
-- The Minnesota Daily, Minneapolis -- The University of Minnesota newspaper dropped Fridays in January.

MISSOURI:
-- Columbia Missourian. Dropped Mondays and Saturdays in Marc.
-- The Hannibal Courier-Post -- Dropped Mondays.
-- The Examiner, Independence -- Dropped Mondays in January.

NEBRASKA:
-- McCook Daily Gazette -- Dropped Saturdays in January.

NEVADA:
-- Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard -- Scaled back in October to Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, instead of Tuesday through Sunday.

NEW JERSEY:
-- Burlington County Times, Willingboro -- Dropped Saturdays in February.

NEW MEXICO:
-- Las Vegas Optic -- Scaled back in March to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, dropping Tuesday and Thursday editions.

NEW YORK:
-- The Daily Mail, Catskill -- Dropped Sundays and Mondays in March.
-- Register-Star, Hudson -- Dropped Sundays and Mondays in March.
-- Hoy, New York -- The five-day-a-week Spanish-language newspaper went online-only Dec. 31.
-- Salamanca Press -- Scaled back in January to weekly, from five days a week.

NORTH CAROLINA:
-- The Dispatch, Lexington -- Dropped Mondays in September.
-- Washington Daily News -- Dropped Mondays.

OHIO:
-- Bellevue Gazette -- Dropped Mondays in January.
-- Fairborn Daily Herald -- Dropped Mondays in November.
-- The Galion Inquirer -- Dropped Mondays in September.
-- Greenville Daily Advocate -- Dropped Mondays and Tuesdays in January.
-- Times-Gazette, Hillsboro -- Dropped Mondays in November.
-- The Madison Press, London -- Dropped Mondays in November.\
-- Piqua Daily Call -- Dropped Tuesdays in February.
-- The Sidney Daily News -- Dropped Tuesdays in February.
-- Troy Daily News -- Dropped Tuesdays in February.
-- Van Wert Times-Bulletin -- Dropped Mondays last fall.
-- Wilmington News Journal -- Dropped Mondays in September.
-- The Xenia Daily Gazette -- Dropped Mondays in November.

OREGON:
-- Herald and News, Klamath Falls -- Dropped Mondays in January.
-- Argus Observer, Ontario -- Will drop Mondays after this week.

PENNSYLVANIA:
-- Beaver County Times, Beaver -- Dropped Saturdays in February.
-- The Intelligencer, Doylestown -- Dropped Saturdays in February.
-- Bucks County Courier Times, Levittown -- Dropped Saturdays in February.
-- Herald-Standard, Uniontown -- Dropped Saturdays in February.

SOUTH CAROLINA:
-- The Item, Sumter -- Dropped Mondays last summer.
-- The Union Daily Times -- Dropped Mondays.

TENNESSEE:
-- State Gazette, Dyersburg -- Dropped Mondays in February.
-- The Newport Plain Talk -- Will scale back to Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays after this Thursday's edition. Newspaper had expanded from three days to five in 1999.
-- Shelbyville Times-Gazette -- Dropped Mondays in March.

TEXAS:
-- Mexia News -- Formerly The Mexia Daily News, went from five to three days a week in January.

WASHINGTON:
-- Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- Ended print publication in March; converted to Internet-only operation with much smaller staff.

WISCONSIN:
-- The Capital Times, Madison -- Became a free publication distributed with its larger rival, Wisconsin State Journal, and given away separately at newspaper racks. Scaled back last year from six days a week to twice weekly -- a news and opinion edition on Wednesdays and an arts, entertainment and culture edition on Thursdays
-- Superior Telegram -- Formerly The Daily Telegram, scaled back last year to Wednesdays and Fridays, instead of six days.
-- The Freeman, Waukesha -- Will drop Mondays after this week.
-- Daily News, West Bend -- Will drop Mondays after this week.
-- The Southwest Times, Pulaski -- Dropped Mondays in October.

Trio blamed for newspapers' demise

And here's a bidt from POYNTER ON LINE

Late Editor Blames Three Key People for Newspapers' Demise

Editor's note: The following essay was written by the late John Walter, who served as executive editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was a founding editor of USA Today. A few months after Walter died due to complications from surgery last September, his wife, Jan Pogue, found this essay on his computer. With her permission, Poynter has reprinted an edited version of it here.

By John Walter

I read today that big-city newspapers are dead. Well, actually, I didn't read it. I heard it from my friend George, who read it in a blog referencing a St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times article about the topic.

The fact that newspapers are dying discourages me; I will miss the sound of the blue bag hitting the porch, even though it hasn't hit the porch anytime recently. The carrier stopped porch delivery long ago, and for a while the blue bag had been hitting the stones at the end of the driveway.

Of course, the blue bag hasn't been hitting the stones at the end of the driveway for a couple of weeks now; I canceled my subscription. This was because I discovered that I foolishly had been paying full price for a home-delivered subscription and didn't know that if you started a new subscription, you actually got 50 percent off for 12 weeks. So, we canceled our subscription and then started it up again, and had 12 good weeks at 50 percent off.

Then I called to cancel my subscription at the end of the 12 weeks, and they said they really didn't want to lose me as a customer, so I could have another 12 weeks at 75 percent off, and I realized what a fool I had been to take the paper for 50 percent off.

So I signed up for 12 weeks at 75 percent off, and when those 12 weeks ended, I called up to cancel, and they said, sorry, they weren't offering the 75 percent off subscription anymore, but I could have the Wednesday through Sunday papers for the same price that I had been paying for the full week at 75 percent off, so I took that for another 12 weeks.

Then, just the other week, when they said I now had to pay full price again for whatever subscription I wanted -- Sundays only, or five weekdays, or Thursday and Monday, whatever -- I said the hell with it. So there hasn't been any blue bag in the driveway now for several weeks, except, of course, on Easter, when the paper gives free copies to apparently anybody with a driveway.

When we were growing up, it never occurred to anybody that newspapers weren't meant to go on forever, and it never occurred to anybody to think of them, like cars and stereos and Wonder White Bread, as consumer products that could outlive their usefulness and become, well, old and dead. But now that seems to be what has happened.

So newspapers are going to go out of business. Journalism will survive, no doubt, but we'll just have to figure out the economics of it as we go along. Some of it will be painful, and some of the business people who are buying the big newspaper companies these days will undoubtedly help figure out the way.

But big metro newspapers themselves? They are out of here. I want to say that there are three people in the world responsible for their demise, and -- because I have always loved newspapers, even when they weren't on my porch or in my driveway -- I want to say I'm mad at them about it. And, therefore, I want to record for posterity who they are, and why we should be mad at them.

First, there is A.J. Liebling. He is responsible because on Feb. 18, 1949, he wrote a famous column in The New Yorker called "Toward a One-Paper Town." In this column he called attention to the fact that the number of newspapers in New York was dwindling, and that competition among newspapers was becoming a thing of the past.

At the time he wrote it, there were at least 10 cities in America with three or more newspapers each, and many more cities beyond that with two newspapers -- one in the morning and one in the evening.

These newspapers more or less competed with one another (although some of them were owned by the same company), and it was a healthy thing. A reporter for The Middletown Blat-Times would be at a city council meeting, as well as a reporter for The Middletown News-Press. If the reporter from the News-Press fell asleep at the meeting and missed the debate about the relocation of the city landfill, then he at least stood the chance of being embarrassed by the fact that the next day the Blat-Times seemed to have been at the meeting he had missed.

But once the Blat-Times went out of business (actually, it merged with the News-Press and became The Middletown Blat-Times-News-Press), there was no other reporter at the meeting to embarrass the fellow about the fact that he fell asleep, and this was bad for newspapers.

Liebling was responsible for this merger mania because it was possible to extrapolate from his column that in many of the American cities where competition still existed, it really wasn't a close race at all; the dominant newspapers were the ones getting the ads and readers, and it was inevitable that the second and third newspapers in those towns were going to die.

The existence of these monopolies was a first step in making newspapers as dull as dog poop because when they became monopoly papers there was no chance of offending anyone, and they became bland. Plus, they had too many comic strips because the surviving papers absorbed all the comics from the competition, and now they had three pages of comics and all of them were printed too small.

So Liebling is the first one who killed newspapers.

Second, there was a layout editor at The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal.

This was in the late 1960s, when newspapers were still fairly individualistic and didn't all look like they came out of the same meat grinder.

There was, for example, the Chicago Tribune, whose front-page format had not changed in 50 years, and always, every morning, consisted of one large headline in two-inch-high type, and then eight columns of skinny, one-column headlines, wedged around a color cartoon of striking imbecility.

And there was the San Francisco Chronicle, which had large headline type, too, and a sports section printed on green paper and a classified section printed on bright yellow paper. It also had lots of quirky short stories from around the world, printed in boxes with squiggly lines around them.

When you saw the squiggly lines, you knew you were in for a treat, a hilarious story about the one-eyed sloth from Madagascar that had been bitten by a local resident and died in spite of a blood transfusion. And so on. In those days, individuality ruled, in both look and content of the papers.

Well, in the middle of this individuality came the layout editor, who one day decided that though newspapers had been printing stories in vertical columns for 200 years, there was no particular reason to do so, and he took out his line gauge and talked to the people in the composing room -- who thought he was crazy -- and laid out his newspaper full of horizontal rectangles. Stories stretched over four columns, or even five, with lots of white space thrown in. [Editor's note: Though others were involved, Ed Arnold was a key figure in this change, which he discussed in a Society of News Design interview (PDF) in 2000.]

And suddenly people were saying the Courier-Journal was one of the best-looking papers in America. "Just like a magazine!" everybody said. And, just like that, newspapers started to abandon the ugly, hodgepodge look of their vertical columns and went into the magazine business.

They lost, thereby, a sense of urgency, and the thing that made them look like, well, newspapers. And it got worse; eventually layout editors were replaced by something called design directors, and design directors took to running pictures of large vegetables, first in black and white and later in color, and newspapering went all soft and squishy as hell.

So that is why that layout editor is the second person responsible for the death of newspapers.

Then there is Al Neuharth, who was general manager of the Rochester, N.Y., newspapers when I worked there in the late 1960s. Soon after that he was head of the Gannett chain of newspapers, which had recently gone public.

Neuharth was a super-slick salesman of the first rank (I say that with absolute affection and admiration; I myself had two or three long and happy careers at Gannett), and pioneered the idea that a public newspaper company could show increased earnings every quarter and result in Wall Street loving you.

He achieved a remarkable string of quarters with increased earnings; I think the string ran up to 22 or more. He did it by buying new newspapers until Gannett owned dozens and dozens of them. He applied tough financial constraints on their budgets and got them to contribute to this ever-increasing bottom line.

It was brilliant, it made perfect sense, and -- particularly if you were going to retire in time -- it carried no threat of ever having to face the day when maybe there wasn't going to be any more growth, a day when Wall Street wasn't going to love you.

Soon everyone wanted to imitate Neuharth, and almost every newspaper company in America went public. The public companies gobbled up more and more papers and created more and more monopolies and stretched their earnings to 20 or 30 percent and ... we know the end of this story. So Neuharth is the third person responsible for killing newspapers.

This morning I heard that Sam Zell, the new owner of the once-mighty Tribune Company, says he doesn't know much about the newspaper business yet, but will know the business inside and out by the time he's done.

Memo to Zell: To know the business, start by reading up on the three guys above. Newspapers are dying. Journalism will go on, but the thing in the blue bag is over. These guys did it.

What will become of news

A report on the CBS News website asks:

Newspapers As We Know Them May Cease To Exist ... But What Will Become Of The News Itself?

And it concludes:

Fusing print, video and the Web is drastically changing what reporters do - and must do.

"What that means to me is not only do you have to know how to report and write, you have to be a wire service reporter, and blog, and you have to know how to use a video camera, you have to know how to appear before a TV camera, be on the radio," said Inquirer editor Bill Marimow. "You really have to be a maestro of the media."

And that, says 30-year Inquirer veteran Gail Shister, comes with a cost, but one that has to be paid.

"I think the big downside of speed is that a lot of times, you don't get the quality control," Shister said. "You don't get enough editing. And you don't get the extra phone call to check something."

And while Shister mourns the potential loss of the printed page, she's a realist:

"I think there's no question that we're losing something, but it's generational," she said. "People under 50 never got into the ritual to start with. They don't know what they're missing because they've never had it. And more importantly, they don't care. I still get excited when I pick up a new paper and open it for the first time."

Ernie Infield and the importance of language

"A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line. ~Joseph Conrad.

Ernie Infield died Saturday at the age of 89. Some of us lately are worried that there are too few of his kind left to carry on the burden.

Will we eventually be left only with sound bites and blogging junkies to provide us with with entertainment and no one to dig up the truth needed to sustain civilization?

Ernie taught writing. He was not like some today who describe themselves as “wordsmiths.” He just taught the importance of language and of facts. Some of us have been lucky enough to know the few like Ernie. Hal Fry comes to mind. Our viewers will remember others.

Scribes from ancient times have provided us trustworthy reports of those ideas and events necessary for the upkeep of civilization.

Hopefully in this digital age there will still be those like Ernie who aspire to good writing.

Click on the headline to read Bob Dyer’s column about Ernie in today’s Beacon Journal.

Even historical society is furloughng staff

Ohio Historical Society Closed This Week

Among recent cost-saving measures to be taken as a result of recent cuts to state funding, the Ohio Historical Society will furlough its employees at specified sites for the week of March 28-April 3, 2009.

The following is from the Ohio Historical Society web site:
Sites and Museums
Fifteen out of 58 OHS historic sites and museums normally open to public visitation and/or business will be closed. The sites scheduled to be closed for the week are: Adena Mansion & Gardens in Chillicothe, Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Campus Martius Museum in Marietta, Dunbar House in Dayton, Fort Ancient near Oregonia, Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, Harding Home in Marion, Ohio Historical Center in Columbus, National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce, National Road/Zane Grey Museum near Norwich, Piqua Historical Area in Piqua, Serpent Mound near Peebles, Wahkeena near Lancaster, Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor in Youngstown and Zoar Village in Zoar. These sites will reopen Saturday, April 4.

Sites that will reopen Saturday, April 4 for public visitation include: Armstrong Air & Space Museum, Campus Martius Museum, Fort Meigs, National Afro-American Museum, Ohio Historical Center, and Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor. All other of the above-mentioned sites will open for business Monday, April 6.

The remaining sites that open later in the season or are managed by other groups for the Society are not affected. Before visiting, please check a site’s Web page at www.ohiohistory.org/places for its 2009 schedule.

Additionally, all history-related services will be closed March 28-April 3, including the Archives-Library in Columbus and Youngstown and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office in Columbus. The Archives-Library will reopen on Saturday, April 4 at both locations. The Ohio Historic Preservation Office will reopen Monday, April 6.

There's good news tonight

There have been enough gloom and doom posts on this blog for a while. It’s time for some good news.

Headline awards come our way
Ten years ago, Regina Brett won the National Headliner Award for special columns on one subject for writing about her own cancer. Now she has won the same award for a special feature column writing about her daughter's decision with breast cancer. Regina is a BJ alum.

The Beacon Journal also got a second for its American Dream series in the 75th annual National Headliner Awards, sponsored by The Press Club of Atlantic City, N.J.

Plain dealer education reporters Scott Stephens and Edith Starzyk won a first for "Putting Teachers to the Test"

The BJ’s American Dream project also won honor mention in the Scripps-Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Awards.
The series was a year in the making and spelled out the financial crisis facing middle America, offered solutions and engaged the community for public action.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers named the same project as a winner for public service and. the Associated Press Society of Ohio picked the series as a finalist for public service.

Click on the headline for the full list:

People still do read the newspaper
A higher percentage of adults in the Cleveland market area are reading newspapers than the national average

A newspaper audience study fby Scarborough Research found 75 percent of adults read a newspaper weekly. Cleveland came in at 86 percent just behind Rochester, the leader with 87 percent. A higher percentage of adults in Rochester are reading newspapers in print or online than in any other U.S. market. Buffalo, NY, also had 86 percent.

“This data begs the question: is the constant negative news feed on the industry warranted when newspapers are actually being read by three-fourths of the adult population? When you look at audience data, it seems irrational that advertisers are leaving newspapers because the numbers speak for themselves,” said Gary Meo, senior vice president, print and digital media, Scarborough Research. “If you are an advertiser seeking to reach a large, upscale audience, newspapers are among the most effective
media for doing so. Further, readership rates vary market-by-market and frequently defy local generalizations about declining audience. In order to obtain an accurate, in-depth portrait of newspaper health, in print and online, one needs to drill down to this local level.”

More than half of the adult population reads the newspaper even in those cities with lower than average Integrated Newspaper Audience. For example, in Bakersfield, CA, and Las Vegas, NV, (the two lowest ranking markets for Integrated Newspaper Audience), 59% of the adult population read a printed newspaper, a newspaper’s website, or did both during the past week. *Integrated Newspaper Audience is the percentage of adults in the market who have read the printed newspaper, or visited the newspaper’s website(s), or did both during the past seven days.

Grumpy Abe agrees that newspapers are still doing their job.
Former BJ political reporter Abe Zaidan who is writing a blog called Grumpy Abe had good things to say about the Plain Dealer’s “relentless” fight against corruption which, he said, is further evidence of the critical need for sustaining the hometown press.

He was not too kind in the same post to the folks who pay his pension. He writes:

“A Page One story in Friday's Beacon Journal reported how the stimulus money will be spent in the Akron area. The headline said the city's Y-bridge will be fenced. And the subhead noted, Some call plan wasteful. Fair enough, so far. But reading the entire report (quite long) to learn who objected enough to merit recognition in the headline, I found the only reference to wasteful spending was near the end of the story which said:
"Some would argue Akron's Y-Bridge project would be a waste. One person, responding to a request for stimulus comments on Akron's Web Site, wrote, 'Please do not build a fence on the Y-Bridge.”
“ One anonymous person snags the headline? You lost me.”

Blog Note to Abe: You just had to spoil our good news post.:

Retired BJ engraver Watson Blanton dies at 87

[Watson and Rosetta regularly attended Beacon Journal retiree luncheons and were last there in May, 2008.]

Watson Luther Blanton, 87, went home to be with his Lord on March 25, 2009.

He was born in Clearwater, Florida, on August 8, 1921. He visited Clearwater every five years to attend his high school class reunion. He received his B.S. Degree from The University of Akron where he was a member of the Alumni Association and the Zip Athletic Club.

Mr. Blanton was a member of the Adoniram Lodge #517 F&AM. He served as master of the Lodge in 1994. He was a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. As a member of Calvary Baptist Church, he held the following offices: Deacon, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Financial Secretary, Sunday School teacher, and Treasurer of the Loyal Sons and Daughters Sunday School Class. He attended The Chapel.

During World War II, FCI Officer Blanton served in five major naval battles in the South Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Tingey DD539. He is a recipient of the Purple Heart. After the war, he was a member of the commissioning crew of the U.S.S. Toledo. Watson retired from the Akron Beacon Journal with 22 years service in the engraving department.

Recently the Webelos I Den from Pack 3075 in Akron gathered at Watson's northwest Akron home to perform a patriotic ceremony of kindness and respect to honor him for his military service in the Navy during World War II. Watson was honored and thrilled to hear that the Cubs have voted to make him an honorary member of their Pack.

Mr. Blanton was preceded in death by his parents, James and Effie Blanton; brothers, Lee and Fred; and sisters, Lois and Lucille. He is survived by his wife, Rosetta Evelyn; sister, Mildred Lazo; and many nieces and nephews.

The family wishes to express thanks to Dr. Robert D.Mosteller, Dr. Eric Rodriguez, Dr. Richard Sparrow, Dr. Michael Gideon, and the doctors and nurses in Emergency at Summa, especially Dr. Ugo Gallo who saved Watson's life, the caring and kind nurses in Critical Care at Summa, and also Melissa White and Scott Carter, his heroes, who administered CPR to him when he suffered a cardiac arrest. We owe much appreciation to the Cadiac Rehab Staff at Summa Hospital who provided rehab treatment for Watson that resulted in a prolongation of his life Jim, Clyde, Tom, Kendra, Patti, and Sally. Grateful appreciation is also expressed to Pastor Lynn Warner and Pastor Eloy Pacheco from The Chapel for their faithfulness in ministering daily to Watson and the hospital chaplains, Deborah Damore and Lois Maio and to Melissa Carawick, hospital staff member.

Services will be held 11 a.m. MONDAY at the Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel, 85 N. Miller Rd., with Pastors Lynn Warner, Eloy Pacheco and Steven Sholar officiating. Interment with military honors by V.F.W. Post 7971/American Legion Post 473 at Rose Hill Burial Park. Friends may call at the funeral home SUNDAY from 2 to 5 p.m., where Adoniram Lodge #517 officiated by George Seabeck will conduct services at 5 p.m., and one hour before services on Monday. The family suggests that memorial contributions be made to the Haven of Rest, 175 E. Market St., Akron 44308. His presence will be missed by the family.

(Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel)
[Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Friday, March 7, 2009, page B6, col. 2]


See blog post about visit of Scouts


See photo of Watsons in wedding anniversary post on this blog

Times to roll back salaries

A New YoekTimes Co. memo sent toJim Romenesko says: "We, regrettably, must take even more steps to lower costs. ...The salaries of all employees at The New York Times Media Group (with the exception of the IHT, which is working on other cost reduction measures), The Boston Globe, Boston.com and Corporate in New York will be rolled back by 5%, starting this April, and these employees will receive 10 additional days off to use before the end of the year." A second memo: eliminates 100 business side jobs.

See the New York Times story.

Brenda Star put on furlough

In Saturday's strip, Brenda Starr is called into B. Babbitt Bottomline's office and given the bad news. "I can't afford to pay you anymore," he tells the reporter. Mary Schmich, who writes the strip, says that "as far-fetched as some of the plots in Brenda are, I do like to keep it topical."

[Thanks to Romenesko at Poynter Online from whom it was stolen.]

Freelance photographer Robert Kamenar dies

[Kamenar was a freelance photographer used by the Beacon Journal]

BARBERTON -- Robert L. Kamenar, 61, passed away March 22, 2009.

Bob was born in Barberton where he was a life resident and owner of Kamenar Productions and Photography for 50 years. Bob graduated from Barberton High School Class of 1965.

He is survived by his mother, Margaret (William) Angst of Barberton; brothers, James (Linda) of Barberton and John (Luanne) of Brunswick; sisters, Nancy Lynne of Glendale, Ariz. and Linda (Ronald) Schueler of Paradise Valley, Ariz.; and many nieces and nephews and beloved friends. He was preceded in death by grandparents, Julia and Frank Kamenar and Elizabeth and John Horvath; and father, Louis Kamenar.

Bob was a former member of the Barberton Board of Education and former Barberton City Councilman at Large where he worked on various projects to promote growth and help preserve the City of Barberton. Bob was a past member of the Barberton Area Jaycees, Kiwanis Club, Elk's Lodge, member of Summit County Right to Life Society, and a current member of the Knights of Columbus, #1617.

Bob was also a former Director of the Miss World Pageant, Miss Universe and preliminary director for Miss America, holding pageants for nearly 20 years as well as Director for Miss Ohio Hemisphere in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virgina.

He was a professional photographer for the Barberton Herald and Akron Beacon Journal. Through the camera lens, Bob met many well known celebrities, politicians, astronauts and President's.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held Friday, March 27, 2009, 10 a.m. at Prince of Peace Catholic Church. Rev. Robert Jackson celebrant. Interment at Holy Cross Cemetery. Calling Hours will be held Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the SILVA-HOSTETLER FUNERAL HOME, 1199 Wooster Rd. West, Barberton, where prayers will be said Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Meals on Wheels or Barberton Beautification Fund.
[Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Wednesday, March 25, 2009, page B6, col.6]

Atlanta J-C to cut 90 jobs, trim circulation area

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Wednesday it will cut its full-time news staff by about 90 people, or nearly 30 percent, to lower costs as it tries to regain profitability amid a severe revenue slump.

The company also announced it will eliminate distribution to seven more outlying counties, reducing its circulation area to 20 metro Atlanta counties, effective April 26. The cutback will pare daily and Sunday circulation by 2 percent.

The AJC’s news staff will drop to about 230 full-time positions, down from about 323 currently. Staff members with five or more years with the company will be offered voluntary buyouts, with layoffs to follow if they don’t achieve the targeted cuts, the company said.

Most of the news staff cuts “will be in production and management, allowing us to keep as many news reporters as possible,” AJC and ajc.com editor Julia Wallace said.

The cuts are expected to be completed in May.

The company laid off 48 part-time news staffers Tuesday and announced the full-time cuts Wednesday morning.

The moves come amid “unprecedented pressures on advertising revenues and the struggling economy,” the company said in a press release.

“The AJC has taken an aggressive approach in changing our business model to ensure long-term viability,” Publisher Doug Franklin said in the release.

“We must reduce costs and become a smaller organization. Today’s announcements are the first in a series of initiatives we’ll announce over the next 90 days to reduce costs,” added Franklin, who was installed as the newspaper’s top executive in January.

It is the third and largest round of job cuts for the AJC news staff, which numbered about 500 in 2006. The first came in 2007 with buyouts for retirement-eligible staff members, followed by a broader buyout in mid-2008.

Counties that will no longer get the AJC print edition are: Barrow, Bibb, Clarke, Houston, Monroe, Oconee and Putnam.

Update from a retired engraver

Here's an update from retired BJ engraver Charles Schmook

I retired in Sept. 1995, WOW! I was in the Engraving Dept. for 14 years, starting in 1981. Since retiring I've kept myself busy being a Co-Director of the Parma Hunger Center. We are open on Tues. and Fri. for a couple hours each day. As you can expect with the economic conditions as they are, we are really busy! Just today we serviced 43 families. A couple of years ago we would average about 15 families per session.

I am still the Secy-Treas. of both the Ohio State Assn. of Allied Printing Trades Councils and the Northeast Ohio Allied Printing Trades Council. Our numbers keep dwindling and I fear the State Assn. is about on its last legs.

For recreation, I have had two motorhomes since retirement and we have done quite a bit of traveling. It's really the way to go! The last few years we have gone to Florida from mid-January to mid-March. We had three daughters and the oldest now lives in Tampa, FL so we do spend a few weeks in that area each year. My son-in-law is an editor for the Tampa Tribune. Previously he was the Editor of the Bonita Banner in Bonita Springs, FL.

A couple of years ago, we did look up Bill Hillsheimer, a former BJ photo-engraver also. He lives in Nakomis, FL.

That's about the size of it from here in Parma.

Take care,

Chuck Schmook

Bill to give newspapers non-profit status

NEW YORK - US Senator Ben Cardin introduced a bill to allow newspapers to operate as nonprofit organizations, following four bankruptcies in the industry in as many months.

Under the proposed bill, advertising and circulation revenue could be claimed as tax exempt, Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said yesterday in a statement. Newspapers would be barred from making political endorsements.

Los Angeles Times owner Tribune Co., the owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and two other publishers have sought bankruptcy protection since December. Hearst Corp. last week halted the print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer after ad revenue plunged.

"The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken," Cardin said in the statement.

The Newspaper Revitalization Act would grant newspapers so-called 501(c)(3) tax status typically reserved for educational entities.

"This is really aimed at community newspapers," or newspapers that may be bought and turned into nonprofits, said Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for Cardin.

The proposal doesn't apply to radio or other media, she said. The bill was submitted to the Senate Finance Committee and doesn't yet have a hearing date.
[Source: Boston.com, website of the Boston Globe]

Blogger Note: Thanks to Ken Krause for send link to this article.

10-day furloughs at PD, other Advance papers

Employees at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Newark Star-Ledger, the Portland Oregonian and other Advance papers have been told to take a 10-day unpaid furlough, Editor & Publisher reports.

There will be salary reductions at some papers.

Advance Publications is instituting mandatory 10-day furloughs and a pension freeze at nearly all of its daily papers outside Michigan, according to Steve Newhouse, chairman of Advance.net and a company spokesman.

Word of the furloughs began to spread last week, but formal announcements were going out today at most of the company's Newhouse newspapers.

Newhouse said the furloughs would likely be required within the next 12 months or by the end of 2009, he was not sure. He also did not have specific figures on the 401 (k) increase.

"It is certainly a difficult day. We are facing unprecedented economic challenges," he said. "Especially in Michigan and the ever-growing challenges to the newspaper business have been documented."

The Oregonian posted a story today stating its furloughs would only be for four days, but salary reductions of five to 10 percent would also be instituted.

Click on the headline to read more.

Charlotte Observer to cut work force

Faced with sharply declining revenues in the recession, The Charlotte Observer will cut its workforce by 14.6 percent and reduce the pay of most remaining employees, the company announced this morning.

In addition to the 82 companywide layoffs -- 60 full-time and 22 part-time employees -- the Observer also plans to reduce the hours of some employees. The company's plan to save costs also includes a one-week furlough for employees later this year if economic conditions don't improve.

"We have really looked every place we can," said Ann Caulkins, the Observer's publisher, during a meeting with newsroom employees this morning.

Click on the headline to read more.

Lexington H-L cuts 15 pct of work force

LEXINGTON, KY -- The Lexington Herald-Leader has cut 15 percent of its workforce as 49 full-time and 4 part-time employees were laid-off Monday morning.

"That alone is really tough to deal with, but when that's the fifth round of lay-offs or buy-outs in under a year – our first round of this started last May – to lose that many people in that short of time has just been excruciating," said Scott Sloan, area chief steward for the Lexington Newspaper Guild, a unit of the Communications Workers of America Local 3372.

Sloan lost 14 of his fellow newsroom guild members as a part of the cut back today. Last week negotiations between the guild and Herald-Leader management allowed for the 14 guild covered workers to be let go by accepting 5 percent wage cuts and a possible five day furlough. Had the guild not accepted those concessions, 19 of their employees would have been terminated today.

The same 5 percent wage cut has been extended to the rest of the Herald-Leader staff making between $25,000 and $100,000. Those at or above the six-figure mark will receive 10 percent wage cuts.

On top to of the lay-off announcements Editor Linda Austin, who has been at the helm of the paper for about 24-months, announced she was leaving to take a job at a university. Which university or position is yet to be announced.

Click on the headline to read more

Ann Arbor News to close in July

The Ann Arbor News will close in July after publishing as the city's daily newspaper since 1835, publisher Laurel Champion announced today.

Heavy losses in revenue drove the decision. Champion said the current "business model is not sustainable." Advertising revenue slumped more than 20 percent in January compared to the same month last year.

"This isn't about abandoning local journalism, it's about serving it up in a very different way," Champion told employees, as she visibly fought back tears.

A new Web-based media company called AnnArbor.com LLC will be launched later this year. In addition to publishing continuously online, AnnArbor.com will publish a print edition twice a week.

Champion, who will be executive vice president of AnnArbor.com, told News employees they can apply for positions with the new company, although job losses are inevitable. A total of 272 people work for the newspaper at both its main downtown Ann Arbor office and its Pittsfield Township printing plant. The newspaper has a daily circulation of nearly 45,000.

Click on the headline to read the full story by Stefanie Murray in the Ann Arbor News

Star Tribune's post-bankruptcy loss: $1.8 million

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has posted a $1.8 million operating loss in its first six weeks in bankruptcy, according to court documents filed Friday.

The paper grossed $24.2 million from Jan. 15 to March 1, and spent $26 million. Management also racked up a hefty $2.2 million in reorganization costs, which are not reflected in the operating loss.

Until now, Strib has managed a profit even as its business deteriorated and it stopped paying off $480 million in debt. In 2008, for example, the operating profit was $31 million.

The danger for a bankrupt business is that no one will lend you money to cover losses, leaving only cutting to keep the doors open.

However, the Strib had squirreled away $25 million before its mid-January filing to keep operating, and the new documents shed some light on the bankruptcy move's timing. Despite the $4 million lost to operations and reorganization, the paper's cash position actually soared to $34 million as Christmastime advertising payments came in.

Click on the headline to read the full story in the Minneapolis Post