SqueezeOC to go web only

SqueezeOC, a 70,000-circulation, weekly tabloid aimed at young professionals, will go online-only Aug. 31, Christopher O. Schulz, vice president of specialty media for Freedom Orange County Information, said Monday.

Freedom Orange County Information is part of the umbrella group that includes the Orange County Register and other print and online publications owned by Irvine-based Freedom Communication Inc.

Schulz said the SqueezeOC switch to Web-only reflects an evolution in its audience since it started publication two years ago.

“It is a young adult audience and, generally, the first place they go for information - for things to go and do – is to the Internet as opposed to a print product,” he said.

Schulz said three of SqueezeOC’s 15 employees were laid off. Several others were reassigned. The changes were part of companywide layoffs announced last week by the Register in response to a drop in advertising.

[Source: Orange County Register website]

Black buys Washington newspapers

Sound Publishing, Inc., the largest publisher of community newspapers and shoppers in the Pacific Northwest, has purchased two established community newspapers, a regional shopper and two monthly business publications. Sound Publishing, which owns the Beacon Journal, is the U.S. branch of Black Papers Ltd.

Sound announced it has acquired two weeklies, the Marysville Globe and Arlington Times, the regional Express Shopper and two monthly business publications in Bellingham and Wenatchee, Washington, from Sun News, Inc. The purchase is effective August 10.

The Marysville Globe and Arlington Times are two of the oldest community newspapers in Washington State. Both have been published since the 1890s and have received numerous awards for newspaper excellence. The Globe, Times and the Express Shopper circulate throughout the Marysville and Arlington regions north of Everett.

The monthly Wenatchee Business Journal and the Bellingham Business Journal serve their respective cities and Chelan and Whatcom counties with business news and are the recipients of several Society of Professional Journalists awards.

Sun News, Inc., owned by Bob and Debra Marshall and Kris and Catherine Passey, acquired the Globe and Times in 1997 and purchased the business monthlies in 2001. Kris Passey will continue to serve as both publisher of the community newspapers and supervisor of the business publications.

Sound president Manfred Tempelmayr said the new acquisitions strengthen the company’s position in the Western Washington region.

“We are committed to the readers and advertisers in the Pacific Northwest and are excited to add these well-respected and established products. The former owners built a strong community connection with excellent newspapers and we intend to build on that strength,” Tempelmayr said.

Sound has publishing interests throughout Western Washington and Oregon. The company operates newspapers and business publications in the San Juan Islands, Whidbey Island, Kitsap County, Vashon Island and Tacoma and recently acquired, through its subsidiary King County Publications, the Reporter newspaper group in King County. Sound also publishes the Little Nickel and Nickel Ads classified products in both Washington and Oregon. Sound owns more than 50 publications in the region with a weekly circulation of 850,000.

Media News ousts Newspaper Guild

MediaNews Group followed through Monday on its threat to withdraw recognition of the Newspaper Guild at its Alameda Newspaper Group outside San Francisco after consolidating its editorial functions with the neighboring Contra Costa Newspapers.

The consolidation of editorial operations from the two groups comes one year after MediaNews purchased the Contra Costa papers from McClatchy as part of its takeover of 31 daily and community papers in the area, which also included the San Jose Mercury News.

Source: Joe Strupp. Editor & Publisher

What about getting drugs from Canada?

Even getting your brand name drugs from Canada, till the start of 2008 when your donut hole vanishes, is tricky. In my case:

Celebrex costs $263.26 for a 90-day supply from Aetna.
In Canada, Celebrex costs $140.49 for the exact same brand name and supply.

But Uroxatral 90-day supply costs $68.39 from Aetna and $94.38 from Canada. Even the generic Alphozosin, not available from Aetna, costs $77.88 in Canada.

If you want to check your brand name prescriptions' costs in Canada, the web site is at

http://www.canadadrugs.com/search.php?keyword=Uroxatral&x=18&y=4

If you prefer, you could get from Canada what is cheaper there, as long as it's the same brand name and strength as from Aetna, and get from Aetna what is cheaper from Aetna than from Canada.

Generics, of course, continue to cost you $5, even in the donut hole, so it doesn't make much sense to look for a better deal on generics.

This law was passed by the Republican-controlled 2003 Congress, with the donut hole inserted at the behest of the pharmaceutical companies, and the ban on Medicare negotiating drug prices down added after pressure from the same lobbyists.

Not that the Democrats have made any headway to eliminate the donut hole, faced with veto threats from President Bush, after the Democrats took over both houses.

Rubber Bowl piece recalls Jim Schlemmer, Oscar Smith

Beacon Journal staff writer Mark J. Price does a great job in a regular Monday series called This Place, This Time on the Arts&LIving section front.

Today's article recalls the grand opening of the Rubber Bowl which will be sold when the University of Akron builds a new stadium on campus.

The article mentions a couple of old timers which a few may remember even if they were not around themselves for the grand opening.

More than 40,000 cheering citizens jammed the rubber boll for the opening in August, 1940, Price notes. "Promoters called the dedication of the $546,000 stadium the "greatest civic affair in Akron's history." Every seat was filled in the stadium designed to seat 37,000.

B. J. "Shorty" Fulton, manager of Akron Municipal Airport, and Beacon sports editor Jim Schlemmer championed the cause. The Works Project Administratin in 1939 agreed to provide $246,000 in federal funds if Akron contrbuted $30,000. Schlemmer led a committee to raise pledges and had no difficult persuading 30,000 citizens to donate $1 each.

Beacon Journal writer Oscar Smith described the spectacle:

''There were Akron university uniformed football players; 100 talented dancers, pupils of cooperating dance teachers of Akron; high school students, some in caps and gowns, some in lettered sweaters, students from North, South, East, West, Garfield, Central. St. Vincent's, Kenmore, Ellet, Hower and Buchtel; there were representatives of archery, badminton, casting, boxing, softball, dog shows, fencing, gymnastics, field hockey, motorcycling, pingpong, polo, skating, skiing, tennis, track in fact, about every sport and activity you could name.''

Click on the headline to go to Price's article.

Bob Pell joins Donut Hole Gang

Retired printer Bob Pell has joined the Donnut Hole Gang.

Pell paid the top co-pay-- $40 -- last month for a prescription. He just paid $125.30 for the same prescription. Retirees on the Aetna prescription plan pay $5, $20 or $40 co-pay for brand name drugs until $2,300 has been paid by Aetna. That's when you hit the donut hold and have to pay full price for brand name drugs. You still get generic drugs for $5 copay, but there are no generic drugs for expensive brand-name medications needed for such things as diabetes.

Aetna then will not provide co-pay for the brand name drugs until you have paid $3,850 out of your own pocket. You probably will reach that ampount by year's end and start all over.

Please let us know when you reach that first magic $2,300 so we can add your name to the Donut Hole Gang.

Newsprint used to tell website story

Linda Lyell, vice president for online operations of Ohio.com, relied on good old newsprint Sunday to discuss revamping of the Beacon Journal website.

Ohio.com builds a new home was the headline for an op-ed piece on page A15 in which Lyell draws a parallel between the website and the home she and her husband were building.

“Part of the sale of the Beacon Journal a year ago involved moving the Ohio.com infrastructure away from its former owners to a new place,” Lyell explains. “We had one year until Aug. 1 to complete this task.”

The carpenter for the website rebuilding must have been Jim Arnold, the website manager. The husband is Gary, who owns an automation equipment company in Kent.

Click on the headline to read the Lyell piece--online, of course.

Red-faced blogger note: I have deleted a reference in this post to a home of the Lyells in Mississippi. The home she was comparing the website to was their home here. It was a pretty cheap shot by the blog guy anyway.

How did the media react to Bonds’ Blast?

The Project for Excellence in Journalism examined the coverage in the 43 daily newspapers based in cities that host major league baseball franchises to see how the papers covered Barry Bonds’ record-breaking home run. PEJ looked for the most frequently used words in the coverage, some 106 stories, columns and sidebars.

The conclusion was that the achievement did not seem to signal a more admiring reevaluation of baseball's newest king.

Indeed, after the names of Henry Aaron, the man Bonds surpassed (whose name appeared 672 times), and Mike Bacsik, the pitcher who served up home run #756 (whose name appeared 246 times), the most common words in the 106 stories PEJ examined were “steroids” and “performance enhancing drugs.” Both appeared 215 times.

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism

Knight-Batten Award finalists named

Ten creative ways of generating news and information – from tracking how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the Web and how the Web is using them, to in-depth guides to world crisis areas, and virtual guides to news in virtual places – are named the finalists of this year's Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

"Repeatedly in a robust field of entries, we saw both journalists and non-journalists partnering with the public to fill spaces that traditional media is leaving bare," said Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab, which administers the awards program. "Overall, the competition left us optimistic rather than pessimistic about the future of journalism."

"The depth and breadth of the work we examined were amazing," said Advisory Board member Jody Brannon, senior editor at MSN.com.

A national panel of judges chose winners for a $10,000 Grand Prize, a $2,000 First Place Award, and four other $1,000 awards, including a Wild Card and a Citizen Media Award. Because of the diversity of good ideas, the Advisory Board cited four efforts for Honorable Mention.

The top winner will be announced Sept. 17 at a symposium and luncheon, "Creativity Unleashed," at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Highlighting that event will be a keynote address by Susan Clark-Johnson, President of the Newspaper Division of Gannett Co. Inc. To attend the awards symposium and luncheon, RSVP to news@j-lab.org. The event is free but you must register.

Gary Kebbel, Knight Foundation journalism program officer, said the range of this year's winners was encouraging. "It shows creativity and innovation throughout the news and information field from daily newspapers to virtual worlds," he said.

The Knight-Batten Awards spotlight the creative use of new information ideas and technologies to involve citizens in public issues. They are administered by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland.

You can view the finalists as well as more than three dozen other notable entries at
www.j-lab.org. Click on the headline to go there.

E&P publishing Ridder trial transcript

Editor & Publisher has obtained a full transcript from the trial in a lawsuit brought by Northwest Publications LLC, which runs the St. Paul Pioneer Press, against The Star Tribune Co., held in late June, and is publishing excerpts

The lawsuit was sparked when Pioneer Press Publisher Par Ridder signed on to become the publisher of the Star Tribune in March of this year. The Pioneer Press contends, among other things, that Ridder violated a non-compete agreement and stole Pioneer Press financial information and disclosed it to some executives at the Star Tribune.

The trial took place over a three-day period starting June 25 in a Ramsey County district courthouse in St. Paul. Judge David C. Higgs said he will announce his decision at the end of the summer. Meanwhile, Ridder continues to serve as publisher of the Star Tribune.

Among those testifying at the hearing: Par Ridder, his father Tony Ridder, MediaNews Group chief William Dean Singleton, McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt, analyst John Morton.

Some of the many interesting things to come out of the trial are the inner workings of the newspaper industry. Ridder testifies about how newspaper publishers share financial information in order to benchmark their progress.

Click on the headline to read Part 1 of the transcript series by Jennifer Saba, an associate editor at E&P.

Akron Means Business staff sought

Kaeth Shaughnessy Gauthier is planning a new local publication called Akron Means Business and is searching for a team to write, photograph, and distribute the monthly magazine and an on-line video program.

Beacon Journal reporter Paula Schleis wrote an article on July 21 about the new publishing company in Akron which has produced one national magazine and plans others..

In February, Gautheir and husband, Frank, launched Park Model Living, a monthly magazine that has grown to 3,000 subscribers. Things have gone so well, the pair plan to begin publishing two more magazines one devoted to lovers of ''fifth wheel recreational vehicles,” and Akron Means Business..

Kaeth (she's the editor-in-chief) has never spent a night in a park model, a generic term for 400-square-foot prefabricated homes that are transported by flatbed truck and generally set down on space rented at RV camps or seasonal parks. But Frank (he's the publisher) used to have one in Arizona, where he came to appreciate the ''certain rhythm and style that they nurture.. There are 56 park model manufacturers in the U.S., Kaeth said, and more than 300,000 park model owners. And with a median price of $40,000, it's something that many middle-aged and retiring couples can afford, she added.

They hope to locate some former Beacon Journal folks who may want to use their experience in a new and positive way on the publication. They also will need at least one intern.

The Park Model website is at http://www.parkmodelliving.com

Tel. No. 330-294-0234

See the Schleis article

BJ retirees stuck on 7

For the second straight month, only 7 BJ retirees showed up at Papa Joe's for the monthly lunch/chat.

The newsroom almost had a majority, with Tim Hayes, Sandy Levenson and John Olesky, but that's because only Cal Deshong, Carl Nelson, Gene McClellan and Al Hunsicker showed up from composing.

And if you count Karen Chuparkoff Lefton, once in the newsroom before she began helping what's left of the BJ on the legal front, it was a tie. Karen was elsewhere in the restaurant and noticed a few BJ retirees heading into their room, so she stopped by briefly to say "Hi!"

Since Tom Moore and Bob Pell weren't there, there are no photos.

In December, 18 showed up at Papa Joe's. Not any more.

Newseum will be a late edition

The building has already gobbled up part of the skyline along Pennsylvania Avenue NW, but the public will have to wait a while longer to visit the Newseum, the Washington Post reported.

Museum officials confirmed that, because of what they described as delayed construction deadlines, the $435 million project will not open Oct. 15, as previously announced.

A new opening date has not been set, said Charles L. Overby, the museum's chief executive officer. "We are aiming for a formal opening in the first quarter of next year," Overby said. "We now have assurances that they will be done by the end of the year. We think they will be done by the end of November. Yet, having been burned once, we are holding up on setting a grand opening."

The delay is attributed to the complexity of the building and the final installation of state-of-the-art electronics that has to be done after the general contractor, Turner Construction, is finished.

News is too scandalous for Americans, poll shows

NEW YORK – Americans blame the media for the saturation of celebrity coverage on TV.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press said this week that 87% of respondents believe celebrity scandals get way too much ink and airtime. Only 8% think the media get the balance between celebrity and serious news right, while 2% told the surveyors that there wasn't enough celebrity scandal coverage.

There's been no shortage of scandals to report on in 2007, from the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the subsequent custody battle over her infant daughter to the jail saga of heiress Paris Hilton. Despite the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a presidential campaign already under way, celebrity stories oftentimes have taken over the news. Pew found that 24% of all news was devoted to Smith at the time of her death, while 12% of all Americans said in early June that Hilton's incarceration was their most-followed news story of the week.

The survey found that cable news is most to blame for the ongoing celebrity coverage, with 34% of respondents saying cable news had the most celebrity coverage, followed by network TV news (27%), Internet news sites (15%) and newspapers (8%).

The survey sampled 1,027 adults from July 22-27.

[Source: Reuters/Hollywood Reporter]

Here's your trimmer New York Times

The old Gray Lady is pinching an inch and a half off her width.

A note to readers in Saturday's editions of the New York Times told readers the "slight modifications to the design will preserve the look and texture of The Times."

“Other than if you put a ruler on the paper and measure it, I’m kind of hoping it will not be that noticeable,” said design editor Tom Bodkin. Starting today, the new Times will now be 12 inches wide, which newspaper officials have said is the "industry standard" for American broadsheets.

Cutting the "trim size," as the industry calls it, has been an increasingly frequent measure among broadsheets to reduce costs associated with printing, and sometimes, as with The Wall Street Journal earlier this year, is taken as an opportunity to roll out a redesign of the front page.

Click on the headline to see a longer treatise in Editor & Publisher.

Editor among 100 injured in bridge collapse

A former newspaper editor was among the about 100 people injured when an interstate bridge collapsed in Minneapolis.

A family friend said that Garrett Ebling, 32, of Minnetonka, was in his red Ford Focus on the Interstate 35W bridge when it collapsed into the Mississippi River on Wednesday. He was listed in critical condition Friday evening at Hennepin County Medical Center.

Ebling suffered internal injuries, along with a broken leg and fractures to the bones in his face, said Diane Anderson, a friend of his mother's who accompanied her to the hospital.

Ebling is a New Ulm native and graduate of New Ulm High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked as managing editor for the Faribault Daily News and previously at several newspapers in Virginia. Recently he took a job in the corporate office of Great Clips, Inc., in Minnetonka.

Anderson said Ebling's family doesn't know why he was on the bridge when it collapsed. She said he had just been engaged on Sunday and that his fiance is with him at the hospital.

[Source: Associated Press]

Victor Fusco, BJ district manager, dies at 92

Victor Fusco, 92, passed away August 2, at Akron City Hospital.

Born in Akron in 1915, Vic had been a lifetime area resident. He was employed as a district manager for The Beacon Journal, retiring with 40 years of service. Victor was a member of St. Francis DeSales Church. He served his country as a member of The US Army during World War II. Vic was an avid golfer, who loved to play at Turkeyfoot Lake Golf Club.

Victor was preceded in death by his wife, Loretta; as well as many brothers and sisters. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and Charles Williams of Akron; sons and daughters-in-law, Dennis and Charlotte of San Diego, Calif. and Mark and Cindy of Greentown; grandchildren, Charles (Patricia Newsome) Williams Jr., Richard (Kimberly) Williams, Kevin (Theresa) Williams, Robert (Rebecca) Williams, Mark Fusco Jr., and Megan Fusco; great-grandchildren, Stephanie and Bryan Williams, Brittany, Logan, Ashley Williams, Dustin and Ian Williams, Ryan Luette, and Ronald Fusco.

"A special thanks to the Ridgewood Health Care Center."

The family will receive friends Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. at The Kucko-Anthony-Kertesz Funeral Home 95 W. Waterloo Rd. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at St. Francis DeSales Catholic Church. Entombment Holy Cross Cemetery. Donation in Victor's memory may be made to St. Francis DeSales Catholic Church 4019 Manchester Rd. Akron, Ohio 44319.
(Kucko-Anthony-Kertesz, 724-1281, www.kakfh.com) AN ANTHONY FUNERAL HOME
[The Beacon Journal,, Akron, OH, Sunday, August 5, 2007, page B6, col. 2]

Dunphy reports on OC Register layoffs

From John Dunphy at the Orange County (CA) Register:

Things seem grim at the moment. Newsroom (oops we don't call it that anymore) Content Center morale is a little shaky at the moment. The first of the layoffs was carried out Thursday, ironically a web producer from my staff. Go figure. As we press forward, the strategy is to push all content to the web first and then a dedicated band of souls will take that material and publish a newspaper, a much smaller one I suspect.

The newsroom will take a pretty good hit, the numbers are not exactly known, but all are watching around them. We have lost a features copyeditor, a graphic artist, a Business columnist, a newsroom tech, I will keep you updated. More will happen next week.

Some ancillary publications will be cut back or ended and some of those people will rejoin the newsroom as others leave. There is no guarantee this round of cutbacks will generate the savings needed.

As for me, I guess I'm ok for now. A year ago, I left Business news to take on a sort of hybrid job. I supervise and edit coverage for the newspaper, but I also supervise and produce content for the Sports Web site. I also am charged with motivating the sports staff to embrace the web. Easier said than done.

We are very much into the "user-generated content" form here too. Starting soon there will be an ocmoms web site run mostly by contributing moms and an ochigh web site run mostly by high school contributors.

Best to all,

John Dunphy
Senior Sports Web Editor ocregister.com/sports
Golf and Outdoors Editor
714-796-5021 desk
714-791-1937 cell
jdunphy@ocregister.com

BJ national editor featured in KSU magazine

Beacon Journal national editor Joe Thomas is featured in an article in the Kent State magazine.

Thomas (Class of 1996) believes that despite the layoffs of print newspaper staffs taking place all over the country due to declining subscriptions newspapers will be around in the near future because of dedicated readers and exceptional stories.

“We just have to keep finding ways to win over readers, and the most honest way to do that is to continue cranking out top-notch journalism.” Thomas says.

“What’s great about newspapers is that they plug you into what’s happening in the world around you without needing to be connected to any wires or gadgetry,” he adds. “They are a momentary respite from a maddeningly digital world.”

Thomas has seen the change in the industry firsthand. He began his career with the BJ as a part-time sports statistician during his freshman year at Kent State. The job became a full-time position after he graduated. Thomas left the Akron Beacon Journal for a short time to pursue other career options, but returned in 1998 as a copy editor and was promoted to national editor in 2001.

Thomas said he became interested in Kent State when he attended Journalism and Mass Communications Press Day at the university while he was in high school. It was here he met his future mentor, Associate Professor and News Coordinator Barb Hipsman-Springer, wife of BJ editorial writer Bob Springer.

“Barb became a great mentor and friend who helped me get my foot in the door at the Beacon and also steered me toward several scholarships. After I had graduated and gained several years of professional experience, Barb recruited me to come back to Kent State as an adjunct instructor.”

Despite the dismal outlook for the future of newspaper journalism, Thomas says the Akron Beacon Journal’s readers inspire his positive perspective.
“I don’t think newspapers are in danger of disappearing in the near future. Some 280,000 people read the Beacon Journal each day — and by that measure, we’re far from irrelevant.”

Click on the headline to read the full story by public relations student Alison Turner.

Orange County Register layoffs looming

Here’s a memo on layoffs looming at the Orange County (CA) Register by editor Ken Brusic. Here’s the memo sent to Jim Romenensko of Poynter Online

[Note: Former BJ reporter John Dunphy who was deeply involved in coverage of the Kent State shootings is now an editor at the newspaper]

Folks,

Most of you heard during town halls last week that revenue problems continue to plague our company and our industry. We learned, for example, that revenue was 14 percent behind last year and profit was 38 percent behind. And last year’s financial results were behind the year before.

You also heard that one necessary solution was to cut expenses, including the elimination of positions, people and other non-payroll costs.

None of this is easy. But the truth is, as we see revenue continue to fall, especially in print, our company needs to take strong action to regain some balance.

So today we began a series of actions in the content center that include layoffs. Unlike the voluntary severance we went through last year, people this time are being asked to leave.

The deputy editors and I have made every effort to minimize the effect on people. We are cutting space, eliminating open positions, reducing freelance, dropping some wire services and saving money any way we can. Still, some people will need to leave.

The process is difficult and painful -- especially for those most directly involved. They have done nothing wrong; they are good people. We will miss them.

I ask that you be respectful of the individuals involved. The compiling of lists, the emailing of names or idle speculation and gossiping will not be helpful to them or those of us who need to continue to build and grow our future with fewer people.

Our plan is for everyone to be notified and most of those affected to be gone by next Thursday. We will hold a session in the hockey rink 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9 to attempt to answer your questions.

The publisher and executive team have requested that we not talk about specific numbers of people involved here or throughout the company or the total expense reduction. You'll recall from the town hall meetings that every division within Freedom is being asked to cut costs.

Our entire industry is in a state of transition. We are seeing fundamental shifts in the way people acquire and use news and information. We have a lot going for us in Orange County. We have a strong economy and a vibrant community. We have good customer relationships, smart people and one of the best community news gathering organizations in the country. Local news and information continue to be our strength and a powerful competitive advantage.

If we can focus on the light at the other side of this small tunnel rather than the darkness, we will prosper. We have some good plans in the works to deal with a slightly smaller staff and prepare ourselves for a new way of thinking and working, as well as the creation of new products. We have already seen substantial results from our efforts on the Web.

Please be helpful and kind to those who are leaving and to one another as we work through the changes in the way we work. And thank you for all of what you do every day. -- Ken