Stories of Betty Jaycox sought

Hello. I discovered your blog BJ Alums and was hoping you could put out a plea for retirees with memories of Betty Jaycox to email me.

I am a journalism historian who specializes in telling the stories of women's page journalism. I am working on an article about Betty.

This is my blog: http://www.womenspagehistory.com/

Email address is voss.kimberly@gmail.com

Thanks for your help.

Best, Kim Voss

--

Kimberly Wilmot Voss, PhD

Assistant Professor

Nicholson School of Communication

University of Central Florida

http://www.womenspagehistory.com/

Newsweek ages Princess Diana digitally

Nice typo in screen shot of Morning Joe: Princess of Whales

Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek and the Daily Beast, knows that some people don’t care for her magazine’s “Diana at 50” cover photo, which digitally aged the deceased princess and stuck her next to the living Kate Middleton.

“Some people think it’s kind of spooky and ‘Should we have done it?’ and others think it’s very effective,” Brown said when asked about the response to the controversial cover on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe.” “I think it’s a very intriguing package to show what she’d be like today.”

The cover, which accompanies Brown’s story that imagines what Diana would have been like today, has created a large amount of debate about how appropriate it is for a magazine to use an altered image of a dead woman.

Jezebel’s Dodai Stewart called the cover “very” creepy, pointing out that it might be upsetting to her children, Prince William and Prince Harry, to see their mother like this. The Los Angeles Times is conducting a poll to ask readers whether the cover is “shocking, brilliant or just plain cheap.” So far, a majority have voted that it’s “horribly” or “somewhat” offensive.

Following the strong responses to the cover, Brown released a statement Tuesday: “We wanted to bring the memory of Diana alive in a vivid image that transcends time and reflects my piece.”

She expanded on this idea Wednesday, saying the photo was the “best way to ... communicate” the idea behind her imaginative piece. “I wanted to make her a time traveler.”

Harold McElroy is showing improvement

BJ Alums got this email about Beacon Journal business department retiree Harold McElroy, who had surgery to remove his cancerous right lung, from BJ Circulation Department retiree Janet Hall, who forwarded it from Sheryl Scott Sheinin.

Harold was moved to a room today (Monday) and is showing improvement, is doing some walking, but still has the feeding tube. If he continues to improve, they may transfer him closer to home, which would help Mom (Linda) immensely. All his numbers have looked good for several days, so everything sounds positive.

-- Cheryl


Click on the headline for earlier reports on Harold.

Confidence in newspapers, TV rebounds

Americans' confidence in newspapers and television news rebounded slightly in the past year, having been stuck at record lows since 2007. The 28% of Americans who express a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers and the 27% who say the same about television news still lag significantly behind the levels of trust seen through much of the 1990s and into 2003.

The findings are from Gallup's annual update on confidence in institutions, which found few other notable changes from last year. Newspapers and television news rank 10th and 11th in confidence, respectively, among the 16 institutions tested. While the improvement for each is small in absolute terms, it could mark the beginning of the reversal of the trend seen in recent years. The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual report on The State of the News Media suggests that the state of the media improved in 2010 as content providers found new ways to meet the changing needs of their audiences as well as new revenue models.

Read the report

Same-sex marriage law passes: See headlines

Late Friday night, the New York State Senate passed by 33 to 29 a bill that gives same-sex partners the right to marry. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law almost 90 minutes later, at 11:55 p.m. Thirty days from its passage, same-sex couples can apply for a marriage license. New York becomes the 6th state to pass a same-sex marriage law, but the first with a Republican-controlled legislature. Four Republicans and 29 Democrats voted in favor of it.


Poynter displays how the decision was announced on New York’s front pages Saturday. [See front pages]

At least 50,000 people watched the vote via live stream from the Senate, according to a tweet from the legislature’s account.

Setback for Harold McElroy

BJ Alums got this email about Beacon Journal business department retiree Harold McElroy, who had surgery to remove his cancerous right lung, from BJ Circulation Department retiree Janet Hall.

Harold had a setback and heart rate went sky high. Dr. said it was due to "bad air" not leaving his body as it should have.

Now they did a procedure and it went well. Linda has been at hospital and hotel and is exhausted and not eaten well so tonight she is going to eat and go to bed. He should get off the ventilator tomorrow.

UPDATE: just got off the phone. the procedure went well, and they are planning to remove the ventilator in the morning. doctor says he is back on track. Mom is exhausted and hasn't had a decent meal in days, so she was on her way to eat, then back to the hotel to sleep.

-- John Scott


Janet Hall forwarded the email from Sheryl Scott Sheinin.

Click on the headline for previous BJ Alums items on Harold.

Gay partner's name left out of obit.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark (Reuters) – A small newspaper in north central Arkansas is considering changing its policy on obituaries after a local man complained that the Batesville Daily Guard discriminated against him for being gay.

Terrence James said that through a funeral home, he submitted an obituary to the Daily Guard for his partner, John Millican, who died on June 11 of spinal meningitis. James listed himself as Millican's partner on the obituary form. When the free obituary was printed, James' name was omitted.

"I was already in shock and grieving over John's death," James told Reuters. "It never even occurred to me I would find my last slap in the face after his death at my local newspaper."

Oscar Jones, whose family has owned the newspaper for 82 years, told Reuters that the Daily Guard has a policy of not listing names of unmarried partners, gay or straight, in free obituaries. Paid obituaries cost $85.

"Our policy has more to do with space and manpower issues than it does sexual orientation," said Jones, who is the newspaper's attorney. His mother, Pat Jones, is the Daily Guard's owner and manager.

Oscar Jones said that it might be time to reconsider the policy. He said that since James objected, he has talked with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation about possible ways to update the policy.

"Those policies are stuck in a drawer and don't get review often," Jones said. "Frankly, it hasn't come up before, but it's something that needs to be reviewed. I truly sympathize with this family."

James said that the newspaper told him that if he had chosen a paid obituary, he could have even listed pets.

"That was even worse, comparing John to a pet," James said. "It also reeked of hucksterism."

The Center for Artistic Revolution, a non-profit gay rights group "that fights for fairness and equality for all Arkansans," has launched a campaign for people to call the newspaper to protest.

Randi Romo, a Center representative, said the paper has no right to determine who is a family member and who is not.

"At every turn we are reminded we are not equal and this was a rather stark reminder that even in death there is no equality," Romo told Reuters.

Romo said that the Center will continue to challenge the newspaper until the policy is changed.

"Sometimes the surviving grieving partner, gay or straight, only has that little piece of paper as a last memento of their loved one's life," she said. "They need to know that families look very different than they did 25 years ago."

Knight News Challenge winners announced

Sixteen projects that push the future of news and information will receive a total of $4.7 million in funding. The 2011 Knight News Challenge winners are:

* Adaptive Path (San Francisco) for iWitness; $360,000; Jesse James Garrett, project lead
* The Associated Press (New York) for Overview; $475,000; Jonathan Stray
* The Awesome Foundation (Boston) for The Awesome Foundation: News Taskforce; $244,000; Tim Hwang
* Chicago Tribune for PANDA; $150,000; Brian Boyer
* Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) (Columbia, Mo.) for DocumentCloud Reader Annotations; $320,000; Aron Pilhofer
* The Kiwanja Foundation (Palo Alto) for FrontlineSMS; $250,000; Sean McDonald
* Media and Place Productions (Cambridge, Mass.) for Zeega; $420,000; Kara Oehler
* The Miller Center Foundation (Charlottesville, Va) for The State Decoded; $165,000; Waldo Jaquith
* El Mostrador (Santiago, Chile) for Poderopedia; $200,000; Miguel Paz
* NextDrop (Berkeley) and Hubli-Dharwad (India) for Nextdrop; $375,000; Anu Sridharan
* Open Knowledge Foundation (Cambridge, England) for Spending Stories; $250,000; Martin Keegan
* The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Cambridge, Mass.) for The Public Laboratory; $500,000; Jeffrey Warren
* ScraperWiki (Liverpool, England) for ScraperWiki; $280,000; Francis Irving
* The Tiziano Project (Los Angeles) for Tiziano 360; $200,000; Jon Vidar
* University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) for OpenBlock Rural; $275,000; Ryan Thornburg
* Ushahidi (Orlando) for SwiftRiver; $250,000; David Kobia

Update on Harold McElroy

BJ Alums got this email about Beacon Journal business department retiree Harold McElroy's surgery to remove his cancerous right lung from BJ Circulation Department retiree Janet Hall.

Her son John said the surgery was 9 hours and he did fine. Had to remove 4 ribs because the cancer had gone into a rib. Dr. said he was pleased with the surgery and felt they got it all. He was being fed by IV because he was having trouble swallowing.

Janet Hall forwarded the email from Sheryl Scott Sheinin.

The McElroys live on Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a block from retired BJ printer Dick Latshaw and wife Pat and a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. Both families have been there for at least a decade.

Click on the headline to see a previous posting on Harold's surgery.

Casino resort to replace Miami Herald

The Miami Herald will be replaced by a casino repot.

A $3 billion Downtown Miami resort will be built on Miami Herald land by
Genting Group, one of the world's largest international casino developers, .

Genting, the Malaysian developer bought 140 acres of Biscayne Bay-fronting land on May 27 from The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) for $236 million or about $1.69 million per acre.

The Miami site has 800 feet of waterfront along Biscayne Bay.

That was one of the highest prices for commercial dirt in South Florida in the last decade, according to brokers who track land transactions.

The deal took two months to put together.

The Florida Legislature has still not approved the operation of full-based casinos in the state despite millions of dollars spent by casino-hired lobbyists to change the law over the last 10 years.

"Everybody is posturing and planning and hoping the Legislature will make a decision to make destination resorts a reality" and Genting's deal just "upped the ante,'' he said.

The Miami Herald Media Co.'s newspaper, The Miami Herald, sits on 14 acres of the acquired 140-acre site. The Herald has two years to find another publishing venue, according to a May 27 news release from McClatchy.

The land's owner of record is a Genting subsidiary, Bayfront 2011 Property LLC. The Herald's building is part of the sale.

Genting and its affiliates are leading developers and operators of destination resorts around the world, including the United States, Malaysia, Manila, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

In his prepared statement, Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive, said, "This property, located on Biscayne Bay, has been home to The Miami Herald for many years. While locating newspaper operations on the bay may have made sense in the past, it no longer is the best fit.

"Importantly, the sale of this real estate has no impact on the mission of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald," Pruitt said.

"The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald's commitments to providing high quality, public service journalism on multiple platforms and to providing the broadest, most effective reach for their advertisers have never been stronger," Pruitt said.

Pruitt said McClatchy will use $236 million of the proceeds as follows:

$163 million will be contributed to the company's pension plan.
$65 million will be offered (the Offer) to the holders of the company's 2017 senior secured notes (Noteholders) at par as required by the note indenture.
$2 million will be used to pay for transfer taxes associated with the sale.


The remaining $6 million will be held in an escrow account payable to McClatchy upon relocation of its Miami operations.

Gannett lays off 700 newspaper division employees

That’s about 2 percent of the workforce, according to Gannett US Community Publishing division president Bob Dickey. “Publishers will notify people today and we will make every effort to reach everyone by end of day,” he says in a memo that’s posted below. “It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance and we thank and respect those employees for their work.” In March it was disclosed that Gannett CEO Craig Dubow received a $1.25 million cash bonus and had his salary doubled.

June 21, 2011
To: All US Community Publishing employees
From: Bob Dickey

As we reach the mid-point of the year, the economic recovery is not happening as quickly or favorably as we had hoped and continues to impact our U.S. community media organizations. We have made continued progress on the many initiatives underway to seek new sources of revenue, build a world class sales force and better serve our customers through watchdog reporting and stronger Sunday newspapers. While we are seeing improved circulation results and audience growth, weakness in the real estate sector, slow job creation and now softer auto ad demand continue to challenge revenue growth in the division.

National advertising remains soft and with many of our local advertisers reducing their overall budgets, we need to take further steps to align our costs with the current revenue trends. Each of our local media organizations faces its own market conditions, challenges and opportunities. Therefore, it has been up to each local publisher to determine his or her unique course of action.

While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs. Accordingly, approximately 700 employees within USCP, or about 2% of our company’s overall workforce, will be let go. Publishers will notify people today and we will make every effort to reach everyone by end of day. It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance and we thank and respect those employees for their work. We will do everything we can to help them and to minimize the impact on our other employees going forward. In an effort to reduce the number of people being let go, there will be furloughs in the coming months but they will be limited only to those on the USCP corporate payroll who make over a certain salary. You will be notified by your publisher if you are among this group.

These have been extremely difficult and painful decisions to make. I know the impact is felt by everyone within USCP and companywide.

I appreciate and thank you for all that you do to create and deliver award-winning journalism to our customers and communities every day. Even under these challenging circumstances, I know you will continue to do so and your efforts are greatly appreciated by our customers and colleagues within Gannett.

As always, please feel free to email me directly at rdickey@gannett.com with any questions you may have.

Retired printers who got back cheaper prescriptions

In an earlier post about retired printer Hugh Downing, I mentioned that those who were named in the lawsuit are saving hundreds of dollars that those who did not join the lawsuit are paying. The original post:

Hugh and Sharon have another reason to be happy. They were among the retired printers in the health care lawsuit against the Beacon Journal. A judge’s preliminary injunction restored their prescription co-pay benefits, made the BJ reimburse them for their extra prescription costs above the retirement-day co-pays and reinstated secondary insurance coverage, which usually pays the 20% of the costs that Medicare allows but doesn’t pay. Medicare pays the other 80%.

Only those printers named in the lawsuit got their $2 to $5 co-pay prescription benefits back and reimbursement for overpayments -- husband and wife Dave and Gina White, who live in Venice, Florida after decades of residing in Sarasota; Norm Mattern; Ray Wolfe; Ruth West; Bob Abbott; and three or four others whose names I don’t know yet.

Retired printers who did not join the lawsuit continue to pay hundreds of dollars more than those who signed up for the lawsuit.

I asked the attorneys for the retired printers to give me the complete list of those who are in the lawsuit and thus have had their $2 to $5 prescription co-pay cards restored. His reply:

The named plaintiffs in the White case are:
Dave & Regina White
Hugh and Sharon Downing
Ruth and Tom West
Bob Abbott
Bob Walker
Larnie and Stephanie Greene
Ora and Shirley Thombs
Ray and Amy Wolfe
Norm and Naomi Mattern

However, I was not accurate about those who had the BJ going back to paying the 20% of the amount that Medicare approved (Medicare pays the 80%; the BJ the other 20%) for medical care (doctors, hospitals, etc.). Some got the 20% co-pay back, some did not, depending on when they retired. Again, the attorney's clarification:

While all have had their Rx benefit restored, only those who retired in or before 1992, under their retirement letters, will receive a secondary-insurance benefit.

So those who joined the retired printers lawsuit are paying hundreds of dollars less than retired printers who did NOT join the lawsuit. In my case, for example, losing the $2 co-pay card has cost me an extra $6,837.29 in out-of-pocket prescription payments since Feb. 1, 2007 when Black Press instituted the health care changes.

I have filed a similar lawsuit against the BJ for the health care coverage changes made for Guild retirees, particularly changes made Feb. 1, 2007 after Black Press became the BJ's owner.

--- John Olesky

Boston-Herald offers buyouts

The Boston Herald today offered employees voluntary buyout packages in order to trim staff and cut costs.

The offer was made to all the newspaper’s staff and managers, according to an e-mail sent to members of the Herald’s newsroom union. Guild members are being offered two weeks salary for every year of service.

Workers taking the buyout package would have until July 1 to make a decision, and any staff reductions would come next month, the Herald reported on its web site.

“The staffing adjustments we’re making are a result of revenue pressure all newspapers are experiencing. However, the financial efficiencies we are undertaking, coupled with the really great print and online products we publish every day, will position us well for the future,’’ Herald Publisher Patrick J. Purcell said in a statement.

The Herald has more than 200 employees, according to employee estimates.

Bill Brotherton, the newsroom chairperson for the Guild, wrote in his email to colleagues, “But don’t fret, this is nothing like the dire situation we encountered a few years ago, when so many of our union brothers and sisters left or were laid off. We are not going out of business. This is a belt-tightening move by Pat Purcell and his financial team.”

Remembering John S. Knight

JOHN S. KNIGHT Died, June 16, 1981

Report on Harold McElroy's surgery

BJ Alums got this email about Beacon Journal business department retiree Harold McElroy's surgery to remove his cancerous right lung. It came by way of Sheryl Scott Sheinin, who forwarded it from John Scott.


UPDATE on Harold.
From John Scott: just got off the phone with Mom. everything went great. It took 9 hours and they did find some more cancer, but were able to remove all of it. The Doctor is very pleased.

They feel that this has been the root of his problem all along. The tumor was larger than a baseball and was growing into the ribs.

Thank You to all for the thoughts and prayers. Keep em coming as he recovers from this.


Click on the headline to see an earlier story on the situation for Harold, who lives in Pauleys Island, South Carolina.

Carrie's husband writes about her recovery

BJ Alums received this email from John Krack, husband of Caroline "Carrie" Moore Krack, who is BJ newsroom retiree Tom Moore's daughter.


This is the letter I’ve been waiting for 5 months to write. We brought her home to Minnesota on Monday, June 6. She’s doing very well. Her balance has improved. She’s able to walk most places with a single cane, and walks around the house with no support. She still has some weakness in her right side, but that’s expected to resolve as she (as she puts it) “gets back to being an adult,” and resumes her normal activities. She still needs a little bit more therapy, and we’re working on getting that set up. Every indication is that she will make a complete recovery. She’s lost about 40 pounds, and looks great. (I guess I'll have to buy her a new wardrobe, but I don't mind one bit!)

We saw the cardiologist May 31, and he said her cardiac ejection factor is 60%, which is spot-on normal. She has no apparent heart issues, and he was absolutely amazed that she has done so well. She did a driver evaluation June 2, and the examiner said she’s very close to being able to drive. The biggest problem was that the right-side weakness kept her from moving quickly enough between the accelerator and the brake, and that should improve as she gets stronger. She also needs to process information more quickly, and that should also get better. We don’t have a timeline, but I’d expect her to be driving again in a few months. Meanwhile, she's got a captive chauffeur, though we may need to enlist some of you to help from time to time..

She saw the ophthalmologist today, who said her eyes are very healthy. Next are follow-up appointments with her other doctors to transition her monitoring and care to MN.

I drove to Akron on May 30, and spent the week there. In addition to the doctor appointment and last few therapy sessions, we stopped by the ICU and specialty hospital where she spent January and February, and showed her off to the nurses and therapists who worked with her. Carrie, of course, didn’t remember many of them, but was glad to meet and thank them, and they were very happy to see how well she’s doing. Carrie took a bunch of scrubbies along and handed them out to the nurses. Most of the docs I wanted to see weren’t available, but we did run into the doctor who was in charge of her respiratory care at the specialty hospital (oversaw her swallowing tests and trach tube removal) . She (the doctor), who I pegged as pretty matter-of-fact and not particularly warm, almost went crazy with surprise at how well Carrie was doing. We think she even surprised some of the interns who were with her by her reaction. It was fun all around to see these care-givers again under more positive circumstances.

We drove to NW Pennsylvania for an overnight to visit my brother and sister-in-law, and my mom and sister and aunts/uncle. It was a trial to see how Carrie would do on long-distance travel, and she did fine. We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary with her family on Sunday, and headed home Monday. I had planned to spend a night on the road, but she said she was feeling well and wanted to keep moving, so we got in late Monday evening, to be welcomed by lots of beautiful flowers left in our yard by friends. (And she was able to use the ladies' room entirely by herself!)

She’s been to several get-togethers with friends in the past week, and we’ve spent a lot of time cleaning up the house. She still tires easily and needs to take naps, but is able to do light housework and other activities with no problem.

So, things are moving forward and getting back to normal. The doctors all say she’s a “miracle lady,” and we would have to agree. We’re certain that your love and kindness and prayers and support throughout this journey had a great deal to do with her remarkable recovery. Her parents have been absolutely wonderful through all of this, providing her with loads of support, and a quiet place to recover, as she continued her therapy. Overall, we couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.

We thank all of you again, and look forward seeing you in the weeks to come.

You can email her at cjkrack@gmail.com

God Watch! Love and Hugs.

Carrie and John



Caroline/Carrie came down with meningitis in January and was in a coma for weeks.

Click on the headline to read earlier stories on her health situation.

BJ photos over the years

For dozens of photos of former Beacon Journal employees over the years, click on the headline.

Surgery for Harold McElroy

Beacon Journal business department retiree Harold McElroy will have his right lung removed Thursday. The email from Harold's wife, Linda:

Janet:

Just wanted you to know that Harold was diagnosed with lung cancer recently. He is having surgery to remove the rest of his right lung on Thursday. He has been in a lot of pain for about 6 months with the shoulder area. We now think it is the tumor in the top of his lung.

Take care.
Linda


BJ Circulation Department retiree Janet Hall forwarded the email to the BJ Alums blog.

The McElroys live on Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a block from retired BJ printer Dick Latshaw and wife Pat and a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. Both families have been there for at least a decade.

Retired BJ printer Sid Sprague moved from Pawleys Island to Colorado after Sid's wife died. Sid remarried and his second wife has family in Colorado.

Sid's wife, Sandra, 64, died in 2003. Sid's son, Steve, 38, of Middleburg, Virginia, died May 4, 2010.

Dick Latshaw emailed this about Harold's upcoming surgery:


The photo (of Harold and Linda) was taken in Hawaii on our 50th anniversary In January, 2011.

I saw Harold this morning. He is in good spirits.

Dick



Click on the headline to see more photos of the Latshaws and the McElroys in Hawaii in January 2011.