How Channels got its name

The Beacon Journal's wise decision to reverse the elimination of midnight-to-6-a.m. listings and alphabetized movie listings recalls how Channels, the weekly TV guide, got its name. Jim Nolan, who never used a vowel in his memos and who married nearly every woman he met, was the Features Editor and I had been switched from Electronics Coordinator (the link between the Newsroom and Composing in technology) to Television Editor. My first project was to work with Nolan to come up with a smaller, handier TV guide. Both Jim and I came up with all kind of esoteric names for the new baby. They were so bad, including my ideas, that I can't remember them today. The cover design for the new BJ TV guide was entrusted to Clyde "Bud" Morris. After we ran a gazillion names past Bud, he said, "Why don't we just call it Channels, which is what the readers want to check to see what's on?"

Sometimes the simplest solution is remarkably clever. Channels it became, on Super Bowl Sunday, 1980. We chose Super Bowl Sunday because we had high hopes that the first Channels cover would be of the Siper Bowl, with Browns QB Brian Sipe a great sendoff for a new product. Alas, Red Right 88 and the Oakland Raiders killed that possibility along with the Browns' Super Bowl hopes.

And now Channels no longer looks like the product that the late Bud Morris, Jim Nolan and I gave birth to. But at least the midnight-6 a.m. listings and the alphabetized movie listings have been born again.

And Jim and I could have told today's BJ honchos that it's not nice to fool with the movie listings. For the first Channels, we had the bright idea that we didn't need to include time, day and channels with the alphabetized movies because the readers would just see a movie on the grid, then look in the back for the movie's plot, actors and other information. Wrong! Readers checked the movie listings FIRST, and had no idea when they could see the film. As hundreds of readers told us by phone and letters (emails hadn't been invented yet), do NOT mess with our movies. I had to manually add time, date and channels to the movie listings, as the overtime mounted, till the folks who published Channels could have it done through technology (which took two weeks for the transformation, so I got a LOT of overtime and calloused fingertips). And why the summer frolics in my yard by my grandchildren are in The Pool That Channels Built. Well, that, and Jim's penchant for requiring new mockups every time that a period or coma had to be added to the impending debut of Channels. LOTS of overtime.

John Olesky
Channels' only editor from 1980-1996
And, as I like to call myself, the last true TV Editor of the Beacon Journal

KR ad profits up

Snippits from the business wires:

Improved ad sales help Knight Ridder profit
Newspaper publisher Knight Ridder Inc. said on Wednesday quarterly profit edged up amid a fledging recovery in advertising sales for U.S. newspapers. The company expects the pace of ad revenue growth to pick up next year. The San Jose, California-based publisher, whose newspapers include the Akron Beacon Journal, Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News, said fourth-quarter profit totaled $99 million, or $1.22 per share, up from $96.6 million, or $1.16 per share, a year earlier

From PR News Wire:
SAN JOSE, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Knight Ridder ( KRI) earned $1.38 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2004, up 13.1% from the $1.22 earned in the same period the previous year. For the year, Knight Ridder earned $4.13 per diluted share, up 13.8% from $3.63 in 2004. Included in 2004 earnings per share is $.09 for the quarter and $.26 for the year from the resolution of certain prior-year tax matters, including interest -- as compared to $.07 for the quarter and $.12 for the year in 2003.

And Reuters reported, in part:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gannett Co. Inc. reported higher quarterly profit on Wednesday despite advertising declines at its flagship USA Today newspaper, while rival Knight Ridder Inc., said earnings increased as help-wanted advertising jumped. The results from the two largest U.S. newspaper chains come as publishers try to post a sustained recovery in advertising sales after a multiyear slump. Gannett's chief executive said he is optimistic about the 2005 ad outlook although he said many big advertisers still remain cautious. Gannett and Knight Ridder shares both were lower in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Other newspaper stocks also declined modestly.

KR eyes free tabloids

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newspaper publisher Knight Ridder Inc. is considering launching free dailies and smaller, tabloid-size editions of its papers to boost readership, Chief Executive Tony Ridder said on Wednesday.

To court new readers who may shun traditional newspapers, some U.S. and European publishers have launched no-charge dailies that are aimed largely at commuters. In Britain, two of the country's largest papers have downsized to tabloid formats instead of traditional broadsheets.

A Knight Ridder circulation task force is eyeing both of these industry trends, said Ridder, whose San Jose, California-based company publishes papers including The Miami Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"We think that a tabloid size has a lot of appeal and there's a track record in various places that indicates that really works and can boost circulation," he said in a conference call with analysts following the release of the company's fourth-quarter profit report.

"Even though we haven't made a final decision, we will probably be testing that in a few markets," he said.

The task force also will review whether it makes sense for the company to launch a free daily paper, Ridder said.

The newspaper business is struggling with long-term trends of declining readership as many younger people have not adopted the daily newspaper habit of older generations.

In Britain, the Times and the Independent newspapers recently shrunk in size, publishing compact editions rather than the broadsheets that younger readers may find bulky and staid.

The free tabloid trend also is gaining in popularity. These papers typically are packed with short articles for commuters who only have a few minutes in the morning to scan the news.

The New York Times Co. recently announced a deal to buy 49 percent of free commuter daily Boston Metro for $16.5 million, joining other publishers such as Tribune Co., Belo Corp., Washington Post Co. that offer similar types of tabloids.

The Boston Herald, a competitor to the New York Times' Boston Globe newspaper, has filed an antitrust complaint with the U.S. Justice Department that says the New York Times deal is anticompetitive.
[Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved]

Bill O'Connor update

Here's e-mail from Bill O'Connor:

Harry -

I much enjoyed reading about former colleagues on your blog. The further I am from the time at the Beacon, the more I realize how privileged I was to work with such talented people. In the daily combat of getting out a paper, we all banged heads now and then. And, in fact, most of our heads were rather large. One needed a large ego to survive in the newspaper world. Or maybe it was just that the business attracted those of us with inflated noggins. I know that none was more inflated that my own, or denser. But I always appreciated the care that was taken to make each day's paper as strong as possible, even if it meant listening to you growl and Tom Moore shake his head sadly at my efforts.

I remarried in 2002. Her name is Elsbeth. Although born and raised in Switzerland, she is more American than anyone else I know. She has four grown children, as do I, so holidays can be busy indeed. Elsbeth and I just returned from a month in Kenya. We went with a team of fourth-year medical students from Ohio University and some Akron doctors. They participate in what is called SHARE KENYA, an annual adventure that is now in its seventh year. Our headquarters were in Kisumu, but we spent each day out in the bush, visiting villages and setting up free medical clinics. Elsbeth and I went as journalists and I am now in the process of putting together a mag piece on the adventure although, to tell you the truth, there is a hell of a lot of material and I'm not sure I want to work that hard. But Kenya was an eye-opener. The poverty and squalor are appalling and the government is terribly corrupt. The "elected" officials steal anything not nailed down. I'd love to nail them.

I hope to write the story while in Switzerland. We leave Friday for a three-week stay in Grindelwald, where Elsbeth and her brother have a chalet. She'll ski while there. I tried skiing last year and discovered something about myself - I'm a confirmed coward. But Ott should know that it takes 45 minutes to ski some of the runs and Elsbeth can ski right down to the house. In the winter, the farmers drop all their fences and everyone flies down the mountain, everyone except a certain cowardly Irishman. But I do enjoy the village. So while she skis, I'll write in the morning and then go to the village and drink wickedly strong drinks, flirt with the waitresses and then be joined by my red-cheeked wife, still all fired up from flying down the Alps. At night, we sit on a balcony, bundled up, and watch the silence.

I've finished two novels of a trilogy. The first one is at a publisher right now, but literary novels are a damn hard sell. Hemingway used to cry when he got rejections. I curl into a fetal position and whimper.

I still spend a lot of time trying to keep Porter out of jail. It's a tough job. But I think his wife is doing a nice job on the column.

I hope you are well and that each of my former colleagues finds joy every day. This time of life, I think, is the best. We're finally wise enough, maybe, not to take ourselves too seriously. That's when the real fun begins. Peace.

Update on Mickey & Suzanne Porter

Here’s an update on Mickey and Suzanne Porter. Mickey still writes Porter’s People and wife Suzanne is a retired lawyer. Here’s a note from Mickey:

I had no idea the blog existed. I’m a dues-paying Guild member who works 20 hours a week, mostly from home. I dial into the BJ System.

Suzie is a retired lawyer (she was with the firm of Scanlon and Gearinger.) She’s active in the Woman’s City Club, and travels, often visiting our sons Mike (Chicago), who’s director of equity operations for Morningstar; and Ben (Winston-Salem, NC) a lawyer and partner in a firm there. No grandkids, however.

As for me, I walk 4 miles daily and lift weights at the Y. Although I’m 67, my folks are both alive and well and living in Florida, and I vacation down there a couple of times a year.

I shall start reading the blog, and will tell Bill O’Connor about it. He, too, receives a BJ retirement check.

Best wishes,

Mick

Declining service

When I checked my stoop in Cuyahoga Falls at 10 a.m. for my Beacon Journal (hey, not EVERYONE wakes up at the crack of dawn!), it wasn't there. So I called the BJ Circulation folks to get a paper. The response: "Your manager is gone for the day (at 10 a.m.!). We'll give you credit for not getting the paper." Which means I have to go out in the snow and ice to get a BJ, or just not bother.

The BJ has destroyed the Channels that I nourished from Day One (in 1980), made it unwielding in size instead of the handy dimensions of its birth and hide it within the Community section; no longer provides listings from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. (when up to 15 percent of BJ readers, according to Northeast Ohio Nielsen ratings, are watching TV); and, worse, eliminated the most popular part of Channels, the movie listings with plotlines so that readers would know beforehand whether they wanted to watch the film.

No wonder newspapers are fighting a losing circulation and revenue battle. They are orchestrating their own disintegration.

Geez, I feel like I'm taking over Tom Moore's job of berating the BJ for going to Hell in a handbasket!

(:o)<><

At Tiger Run Campground in Breckenridge, CO 

Ott and Ann in Taos, NM 

Snow, snow , snow... 

....of Snowhawks and Snowchicken...

When I first heard the expression 'snowbirds' and having just bought an RV in 1988 to chase the good snow for skiing all around the country I thought it referred to me and Ann, my wife. Then folks kept asking me when I would go to Florida since I had an RV and was a 'snowbird'.

Then I realized what a snowbird was and evr since then we refer to ourselves as Snowhawks and the Florida bound folks who want to escape the snow as Snowchicken. We ski around here, Ann and I are both retired ski instructors and ski free for life at Boston Mills and Brandywine and many ski resorts out West and in Europe.

Good skiing snow is to be had from minus ten degrees up to sixty degrees in the 11,000 to 12,000 foot elevations. We spend three weeks a Winter in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah or around Lake Tahoe skiing, depending where the best snow is. End of February we will go to Panorama Ski Resort in British Columbia, two hours from Calgary.

Ann is 71 and I am 72 so we feel we better ski a lot while we are still young. About three days a week in Boston Mills, we will also go to Holiday Valley in New York and next Sunday to Seven Springs in Pennsylvania.

After the two weeks of lousy warm weather we had after the New Year it looks like we have some glorious snow again.

Think snow!!!

....Ott

Tom Moore offering DVDs

An offer from Tom Moore:

I've started burning my home videos to dvds. As you know, I've taken my camcorder to a lot of the retiree luncheons and have also filmed a few retirements. The first one I've burned is from 1996 and it includes Fran's office party for her retirement. There are a lot of folks in the video that are no longer with us. If anybody's interested, I'll share the dvd with bj folks and their kin. just send me an email--etcfm@infionline.net--with their home address and I'll eventually get around to sending them a copy.Won't be for a while since dot and I are heading for florida jan. 29 for a week. She'll be limping a bit since she just had knee surgery, but we're gonna get out of this weather for a few days. ~Tom

Blog Note: You should offer Tom $3 for a DVD which is about the cost of the disk and mailers plus postage.
Don't forget to give your USPS address.

Ron Kuhne’s version of ‘God willing’

This is part of an e-mail from Ron Kuhne of Fort Wayne, IN, giving his side of the “God willing: story:

I was working on the city desk. Had a nasty headcold, felt really punchy and should probably have called in sick. My jobs that day included the routine weather blurb. I knocked that out early on and just for shits and giggles added that "God willing" thing after: the standard "The sun will rise at xxx a.m. tomorrow." I figured Giles would get a chuckle out of it (I believe it was he who was working as city editor) and edit it out after chewing me out. Well, he didn't cut it, neither did the copy editor, nor the slotter. The linotype operator faithfully copied it and that's how it ended up in the paper.

I was aghast when first edition came up and it was still there. Bill Schlemmer wanted to fire me, but I think Ben Maidenberg (sp?) talked him out of it -- probably out of concern about a possible union dispute. But after that incident, I felt the handwriting on the wall and took the job on the Connecticut paper a year or so later.

Blog Note: We found Kuhne, now retired in Fort Wayne, in hopes of getting the real story on the “God willing” incident. But, alas, time may have clouded part of his recollection of the story. He says he believes Bob Giles was acting city editor at the time while Dan Warner says he was and that he fired and rehired Kuhne. See the December Archives for a piece Dec 17 by Charlies Buffum: “A story About a story” which mentions the incident and the January archives for a Jan 5 post “Dan was there for God willing” which this blogger believes was probably the correct story. What say ye, Bob Giles?

Ron Kuhne: Life after the BJ

Here’s e-mail from Ron Kuhne, now retired in Fort Wayne, IN, on what he has been doing since the BJ:

After leaving the BJ, I went to Connecticut as editor of a large Sunday weekly in Fairfield County, a bedroom for the NYC commuting crowd. That means we were literally competing with the Sunday NY Times. The Herald was printed at a job shop in Mount Kisco, NY, a situation that meant most of our copy and art had to be ferried about 30 miles away via courier (before the days of instant faxing). Our makeup crew came back home late at night; fog on those hilly roads made the return trip hazardous.

The Sunday Herald was owned by Bill Loeb, of the then-infamous Manchester Union Leader. Except for my occasional trips to the Boston suburb where Loeb and his wife (the late Nackey Scripps) resided in a castle on a hill overlooking the Atlantic, none of my crew ever met the man. In his defense, he wasn't the monster he was perceived to be. He was generous to a fault (once paid our ad manager's bills and complete salary for six months during an illness). In fact, Loeb saw to it that the ad guy was treated at the Boston Clinic, a cost Loeb also bore. Loeb was an absentee owner whose only contributions to the Connecticut paper were editorials -- some of which ran on the cover. The mandated heads included such gems as "Shoot Jane Fonda" and "Dopey Dwight." Beyond that, he left us alone.

Loeb had bought the Herald long before I came onto the scene in 1970. The paper had been a classic scandal sheet that seemed to have been run into the ground by its previous owner. Loeb bought it, changed the name, moved it to Norwalk from Bridgeport and fought the good fight to improve its circulation and reputation, but the Sunday Times was a formidable adversary, to put it mildly. What I did not know when I signed on is that Loeb was using the Herald as a tax write-off and lost money on it every week.

There were 12 editorial types on the staff -- unionized yet, plus an assortment of about 15 ad, biz, and circulation types. It was a hopeless situation, but we managed to take paid circulation to above 40,000 from about 30,000 after converting it to tabloid format. We even showed a little profit now and then. But it was too late and Loeb decided to fold The Herald during the 1973 recession. By then, I was general manager as well as editor and I still feel the sting of that event.

As far as I was concerned, I was through with journalism. I joined the Army and worked as a journalist in Hawaii and Turkey. I also worked as "subject matter expert" for the Defense Information School in Indianapolis. After I retired from the Army, I changed my mind about quitting journalism and took a berth on the copy desk of the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, one of the few two-newspaper towns left. I retired last year after 11 years and am pretty much loafing, at least for now.

On the personal side, I've been married to a patient saint for 32 years. One daughter lives at an Army base in Georgia (her husband was in Kuwait when the second sandbox war started). My oldest daughter works in the theater in Atlanta; a third daughter is an architect in Cleveland and my youngest just earned her second degree from Purdue.

Ronald H. Kuhne
531 Marston Court
Fort Wayne, IN 46826-5609
Tel: 260-471-5127
ikolq@aol.com

Snippits from Hot Type

Snippits from Hot Type, the BJ employe publication:

Twins for Joe and Monica Thomas
Newsroom staff members Joe and Monica Thomas announced the birth of twins Jan. 16. Andrew Joseph weighed 3 pounds, 4 ounces and was 16 1/4 inches long. His sister Ella Susanna weighed 3 pounds, 7 ounces and was 16 1/2 inches long.

Ringing the bell for Salvation Army
Although the holidays have come and gone, it's never too late to acknowledge the community service of staff members. The volunteer activities of several people in the packaging center just recently came to the attention of Hot Type. On three weekends in December 2004, Gary Jubara and several co-workers volunteered 20 hours of their time to ring the bell for the Salvation Army at the Manchester Road Acme. The volunteers raised nearly $968 for the local charity. Without the help of volunteers like these, the Salvation Army would have to pay people to ring the bell during the holidays.Jubara has been ringing the Salvation Army bell for
three years, joined by a mix of family and friends. This year, that mix included co-workers and their families. “It gets everyone in a good mood,” he said. “It was a great way to spend time with family and to do something positive.” Hot Type is pleased to acknowledge the following volunteers from the packaging center for putting such a human face on the Beacon Journal: Dave Belacic, Mike Bookwalter, Dave Buzek, Regina Grice, Gary Jubara, Heather Kugler, Rachel Lawler, Kelli Meade, Lisa Scott, Patricia Starcher, Dave Williams and Mark Williams.

Discounts on YMCA memberships
Because the Akron Beacon Journal is a corporate member of the Akron Area YMCA, staff members are eligible for a 10 percent savings on adult or family memberships. New members who sign up in January save 50 percent on their joiner free. For more information, contact Jill Kolesar, YMCA association membership director, 330-434-9622.

Icy BJ memories & earthquakes

I sent photos of Cuyahoga Falls covered with snow to former State Desk reporter Cathy Strong, who lives in New Zealand, and asked her, tongue in cheek, if she missed it. This is Cathy's reply:

Today I was out kayaking in the Tasman Sea and got horribly sunburned!!!!!

I remember my very first day working at the ABJ, trying to get there for an early shift. I was driving about 5 a.m. up the back road from Alliance to Greenville I hit some wicked ice and ended up spinning out and on my side down a ditch. I had to wait half an hour for the lights to come on in the nearby farmhouse to ring for help. It was a really messy way to start my new job, and coming from rainy Seattle I wasn't used to the icy conditions anyway.

I don't miss it one bit.

My daughter Amanda and I were literally jolted out of our beds this morning. A close-by earthquake hit Wellington and we are on the top of a high rise apartment block. This follows a week of a dozen smaller earthquakes. We thought the smaller ones would have released pressure from the fault line and we would escape anything bigger, but now everyone is making plans to leave town in case an even bigger one hits. If it isn't tsunamis, hurricanes, and cold snaps, then it is more earthquakes.

We are going into a three-day weekend and my little beach village neighbours are getting together on a workshop on First Fould Flush Diverters for our water tanks. We aren't on town water and provide our own water and septic, so anything to make us self-sufficient is big stuff for us.

Cheers,

Cathy Strong

Kevin 'Moose' Huhn now in Denver

E-mail from Kevin Huhn, now in Denver:

Hi, Harry:

My mother, Thelma Huhn, ran into you a few months ago and you told her I should e-mail you with some info about myself, and I recently spoke with Ken Krause and he told me about your Web site. I worked as a sports statistician from 1976 to 1982 with an incredible crew that included Krause, Marty Pantages and Tim Farkas, to name a few. I left the ABJ after graduating from Kent State in May 1982, and my journey through journalism brought me to the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, where I arrived in 1989 as assistant sports editor. I have since been promoted to deputy sports editor. Many from the ABJ might remember me as Moose.

Kevin "Moose" Huhn
huhnk@rockymountainnews.com

Always an Akron connection

There always seems to be an Akron connection to national and world news. Witness the front page for today, Wednesday, Jan 1:

Tech Sgt. Bradley Bennett of Kent will be the first member of the Air Force to sing the National Anthem at a presidential inaugural. He’s a member of the Singing Sergeants, based at Balling Air Force Base in Washington, DC.

The Army has dropped charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder against 2nd Lt. . Eric Anderson of Twinsburg for his involvement in the August killing of a wounded Iraqui teen. But the Army could file the same charges or others later after further investigation.

Well over 2,000 donors contributed $442,969.75 in a two-week fund drive of Akron Community Foundation for victim’s of last month’s earthquake and tsunami in southern Asia. The Foundation raised funds after 9/11 to buy a fire truck for the New York City Fire Department.

Memorable Stories: Mike Clary

Our plea to blog readers to let us know of some memorable stories they have written brought this response from Mike Clary, now at the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

“My favorite story from my years at BJ -- two stints, in mid-60s, then mid-70s with Ricci, Cull and gang -- was one of my first bylines as cop reporter when I bungled into helping cops finger a suspect for the FBI.”

Clary wrote a first person story which ran on page 1 with a one-column photo of Clary and photos of the suspect and a police traffic officer. The story ran on Sunday, October 10, 1965. The newspaper got a letter of thanks few days later from J. Edgar Hoover which Clary still has.

“I was 22, just hired as police reporter, working for city editor Bruce McIntyre,” Clary said.

That was 39 years ago. Clary went on to write many humorous stories for the Beacon and, of course, has written reams of copy since.

Clary said it was “Interesting to read a note from Dan Warner the other day on the blog. He was assistant city editor then and may have had a hand in tuning up that story.”

Please click on the headline above to see a reprint of the story and photos.

Deaths in 2004

Please let us know if we missed anyone.

Anthony Aquino Oct 3, Eddie Cooper July 20, Hal Fry Nov 13, Bob Goshorn Nov 24, Joe Grace June 4, Lorraine Grace (daughter of Joe) Oct. 24, Don Gresock Dec 5, Joseph Locke Dec 12, Betty Logsdon Jan 11, Carl “Red” Nestor Nov 8, Monia Olesky (wife of John) Feb 4, Roland Queen Oct 21, Nancy Rice (mother of Joan) Jan 8, George Richards Oct 7, Alfred Roseborough Oct 16, Shelia Simonin Oct 18, Simon Sheppard Aug 6, George Waterhouse (husband of late Helen) Jan 21.

Paul Grove dies at 92

Paul O. Grove

Paul O. Grove, 92, passed away Jan. 10, 2005, in Cincinnati.

Mr. Grove was a retired printer/journeyman for the Akron Beacon Journal. He was a member of the Medina Lodge 58 F&AM and past member of the V.F.W. in Brunswick. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

He is survived by his daughters, Judith (Thomas) Pflaumer and Mary (Guy) Saponari; son, Thomas (Kathy) Grove; nine grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Margaret (nee Davenport); sisters, Erma Schleich and Helen Wendt; and brother, Lester Grove.

Services Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., at Waite & Son Funeral Home, Medina Chapel, 765 N. Court St., with visitation Tuesday, 6 to 7:30 p.m., at the funeral home. Contributions may be made "In Loving Memory of Paul Grove," specify GED and Literacy Fund, c/o E.C.S.F., 412 Sycamore St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. (Waite & Son, 330-723-3229.) Please sign the guestbook at www.ohio.com/obituaries
[Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio, Saturday, January 15, 2005, page B7, col. 2]