Akron Legal News retiree dies

Akron Legal News retiree Stephen Yuhasz, 84, died Oct. 31 in Phoenix, Arizona. He was a printer for 46 years at ALN before retiring to Green Valley, Arizona. Retired BJ printers Carl Nelson, Gene McClellan and Mike Herchek worked at Legal News with Steve.

Steve's deceased brother, Simon Shephard, was a printer at the BJ.

Steve bowled in the Allied Print Craft League for 49 years and golfed.

A son and daughter live in Akron.

Click on the headline for his obituary in the Beacon Journal.

Surprise for Akron next?

The Akron Symphony’s production of "Porgy and Bess," which is sponsored by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will premiere April 16, 2011 in the University of Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall. Elyria native Lester Lynch will play Crown. Alvy Powell will portray Porgy and Marquita Lister will be Bess.

Akron Symphony Music Director Christopher Wilkins said that roles still available include Sportin’ Life, Serena and Clara and that the chorus positions are 95% filled.

Juilliard Opera School graduate Lynch sang as Crown for the San Francisco Opera and has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra.

There will be a Random Acts of Culture happening in Akron, also funded by the Knight Foundation. The event isn't announced, just performed in a public place. Click on the headline for the BJ Alums article on the Opera Company of Philadelphia doing the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah" in Macy's store amid hundreds of surprised shoppers. Something like that will happen in Akron. If you're in the right place at the right time, you'll hear and see it.

Dawidziak back to Massillon as Twain

Plain Dealer and former Beacon Journal television critic Mark Dawidziak was in Massillon's Historic Lions Lincoln Theater Oct. 31 as the director/lighting operator for his Largely Literary Theater Company’s "The Tell-Tale Play," while wife Sara Showman, Tom Stephan and Alex J. Nine spoke Edgar Allen Poe's words.

He'll be on stage at the same theater, at 156 Lincoln Way E, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21 as his troupe performs "Twain by Three" -- our Mark, wife Sara and Jason Davis. The performance will be nine days before Twain’s 175th birthday.

Tickets, available at the door, are $8 for adults and $6 for students. For information, call (330) 832-0717 or go to www.lionslincolntheatre.com/home.php

Mark and Sara's company performed "Twain By Three" in March at Akron's Wayne College in Orrville and in July at the Nordonia Hills public library.

Mark and Sara perform folk tales annually in Akron's St. Bernard Church for the Books for Africa Library Project’s fundraising dinner.

The troupe does Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" in area libraries in December.

Dawidziak's 12th book, which Kent State Press will publish in 2011 and which is co-authored by Kent bookseller Paul J. Bauer, is "Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler." Tully, who was fired twice by the Beacon Journal and also worked for the Akron Press, became a boxer and Charlie Chaplin's ghost writer and biographer.

Click on the headline for photos of Dawidziak as Twain and sketches by Dawidziak of Twain.

News magazine to fold

U.S. News & World Report will cease printing its monthly magazine in 2011, according to an internal memo from editor Brian Kelly posted to journalism website Romanesko.

Famous for its annual rankings on the best colleges, hospitals, personal finance and a slew of other topics, the magazine had already slipped from a weekly to a bi-weekly and then a monthly over the last two years.

Its circulation plunged last year to 1,269,260 from 1,721,377 the year before, Magazine Publishers of America estimated.

The rankings issues will continue to be published in-print, along with four special topic issues, but the rest of the publication's content will only be available online, the memo said.

Its last regular print edition will be next month.

"All of us at U.S. News Media Group have been aggressively responding to the changing habits in the media marketplace," Kelly wrote. "These latest moves will accelerate our ability to grow our online businesses and position ourselves to take advantage of the emerging platforms for distributing information."

A call to the magazine's public relations department went unanswered Friday afternoon.

[Siource: New York Post]

Knight Foundation Hallelujah delights

The Opera Company of Philadelphia last weekend put together a colossal musical surprise with the help of 28 other organizations. This event, one of the "Random Acts of Culture" being spearheaded by the Knight Foundation over the next few years, brought together more than 650 choristers who mingled with shoppers at the Macy's store in Center City Philadelphia.

At noon on Saturday (October 30), the famous Wanamaker Organ could be heard breaking into the opening measures of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah," and those hundreds of choristers located all over the place chimed in right on cue, startling the heck out of unsuspecting customers.

Take a listen:

Aniston is best seller for mag

The September Harper's Bazaar, with ex-"Friends" star Jennifer Aniston on the cover, sold 255,000 copies on the newsstand -- the magazine's best-selling issue in seven years. Vogue's September issue with Halle Berry fell 5.5 percent to 540,000.

Ex-BJers help nonprofits cope with media

Media Relations 101: Strengthening Communications with the Press on Nov. 16 will help nonprofit organizations deal more effectively with the media. The workshop is sponsored by the Center for

Kirksey

Nonprofit Excellence and the Akron Area Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

The presenters are Dave Hertz, who left the Beacon Journal newsroom and advanced to vice president of the Dix & Eaton public relations firm, and former BJ editorial page editor Ron Kirksey, owner of Kirksey Communications.

The media panel includes WKSU radio "Morning Edition" host Jeff St. Clair, The Suburbanite editor Tammy Proctor, former Channel 5 newsman and BP public relations manager Tom Koch and moderator Tom Duke, president of the Akron chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

The $35 workshop will be at 1-3:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, 703 South Main Street in Akron.

The center's board of directors includes vice chair Debra Adams Simmons, newly elevated to editor of the Plain Dealer.

Click on the headline for the release on the center's web site.

Changes in BJ retirees coverage

I received the 2011 Aetna Medicare 85 PPO Plan for Beacon Journal retirees in the mail. Some of the changes are mandated by the health care reform law recently passed. The main change is that there will tremendous differences in costs if you do not use doctors and facilities that are in the Aetna PPO network under Beacon Journal retiree coverage.

What I saw, if I interpreted things correctly:

$10 co-pay for Tier 1 Generic. Apparently the $5 co-pays are a thing of the past before you hit the dreaded donut hole. The cost to you doubled over 2010.

$40 co-pay for Tier 2 Preferred Brand.
$80 co-pay for Tier 3 Non-Preferred Brand.
That sounds the same as in 2010.

Once you hit the dreaded donut hole:

$5 co-pay for Tier 1 Generic, same as in 2010.
100% co-pay for Tier 2 and Tier 3. Same as 2011 for Tier 3. Not sure whether Tier 2 is an increase over 2010. And the prescripition charge is only for ONE month, not the 90 days as in 2010, if you use a retail pharmacy. It's $10 for 90 days if you use Aetna Rx Home Delivery.

Other items I noticed:

100% coverage for routine physicals, gynecological exams and related lab fees, digital rectal exam and PSA prostate tests, colorectal cancer screening, eye and hearing exams and diabetic supplies after you meet the $250 annual deductible as long as you use network doctors and facilities. Otherwise, you'll pay 25% after you hit the deductible.

There are other changes, so read your Aetna Medicare letter and sheets carefully. If you have questions, call the Beacon Journal Human Resources office for answers. And email John Olesky at Jo4wvu@sbcglobal.net

with the answers you get so he can share the information on the BJ Alums blog.

You can go to AetnaMedicare.com and click on

Find Out

along the right side. And then click on

Find Doctors

And then type in your zip code and put in the distance (I put 40 miles), go to

Provider Type

And make a choice (I typed in Primary Care Physicians) and then go to

Plan

and select

Aetna Medicare Plan PPO

and click on

Start Search

I did that but did not find my primary care physician on the list. I called my primary care physician's office and they said that they were covered.

Since there's a major dollar difference between paying $0 and 25% for in-network and out-of-network, it's worth your time.

Good luck!

Mark, Massillon, BJ reunion

When former BJ and current PD television critic Mark Dawidziak's Mostly Literary Theater Company performed its Poe show in Massillon, Betty O'Neill Roderick was in the audience. Here's Mark's email response to my inquiry about how the Poe production went:

Thanks for asking about Massillon, which went very well. Sara (Mark's wife) came down with a bad cold Saturday, but she rallied on Sunday to deliver a fabulous performance. We had about 50 people, and they were an audience that hung on every word, so that helped a great deal, too. This is the first house we've ever played that required microphones. Alex (Nine)'s mike developed a short in the first act, but he took his voice up a few notches and filled the theater with no problem. One of the things I love about the Poe show in a real theater is that I get to sit up in the booth, run lights and let the real actors do all the work.

We're hoping to build on that 50 on Nov. 21 with the Twain show (in the same Massillon theater), which needs more of an audience (comedy usually does). The Historic Lions Lincoln Theater folks know this a slow building process, having just started the pursuit of live productions for that stage.

The only Beacon person I saw in Massillon was Betty O'Neill Roderick. But Halloween may have been a tough day for many people. Nov. 21 may not be much better, being the Sunday before Thanksgiving, but you throw the doors open and see what happens.

All best,
Mark

Betty is author of "The Ghosts of Zoar, Ohio" and conducts ghost tours May through Halloween in the town settled by German Separatists in 1817. Betty will be talking about her 66-page book at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13 at Perkins Stone Mansion, 550 Copley Road in Akron. There's no charge.

Betty (shown in the photo conducting a Zoar tour) is not a BJ staffer but she writes Beacon Scene articles for the BJ. You know, the social scene in the BJ area. That's how she came across the Zoar stuff, on one of her trips for the BJ.

Click on the headline to see the pre-show BJ Alums article on Mark's Poe production.

It could be worse

Beacon Journal employees have faced the angst of staff reductions since Black Press bought the former Knight-Ridder newspaper in 2007 and BJ printer and Guild retirees have filed suit over benefits reductions, but it could be worse:

Thirty minutes after the sale of the 50,000 circulation Herald-Sun in Durham, North Carolina closed in January, new owners Paxton Media Group of Paducah, Kentucky fired president/publisher David Hughey, vice president/treasurer James Alexander, vice president of sales and marketing Toby Barfield and executive editor/vice president William Hawkins and escorted them from the building. Continuing the carnage, the new owners fired up to 25% of the newspaper’s more than 350 workers on the same day.

Shots were fired Thursday at the Sydney, Australia office of Epoch Times, a Chinese-language newspaper critical of China that supports Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, who charged that Falungong prisoners have been killed and their organs sold on the black market since 1999. Falungong, with Buddhist-inspired teachings, was banned by China in 1999.

The journalists and editors of Egypt’s Al–Dostour protested October’s firing of its editor-in-chief and founder Ibrahim Eissa by the new owners, whose new CEO Reda Edwards said the editorial policies will “lose the profits of the advertisements.”

Ruben Montoya, director of the state-run newspaper "El Telégrafo", was fired in March after he publicly opposed the creation of another state-run newspaper and said that the Ecuador government under Rafael Correa "manages the public media, but is not its owner." So was Mariuxi León, editor of the section "Diversidad," who defended Montoya’s stance in print.

A federal appeals panel in January declined to order fired Santa Barbara News-Press employees reinstated in an interim decision even though an administrative law judge said they were entitled to return with back pay. Final disposition of their case remains on appeal to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington. They charge they were fired in 2007 after they pushed for union representation.

A glitch on page A22

Some readers in the Los Angeles Times' East zone, which includes the San Gabriel Valley and Riverside, were startled to see "dummy" headlines in the National Briefing column on Page A22.

About 55,000 papers were printed before the error was discovered.

Readers feared that all the copy editors had been laid off, or even "massacred," as one put it.

But according to Operations Editor Dave Rickley, Page A22 for the East zone was not touched -- or seen -- by the newsroom.

The page was sent by editors to the pressroom with headlines written and in place.

The only thing that was supposed to change on the page was advertising. However, Rickley said, a technical problem apparently replaced the edited text with an earlier, incomplete version.

The pressroom caught the error early in the press run and notified editors. That quick work allowed the newsroom to send a new, correct version of the page, which limited the damage.

Lilley gets suspended sentence, probation

Beacon Journal staffer Bill Lilley was put on probation for two years and given a 60-day, suspended sentence and the charge reduced to public indecency involving a 14-year-old girl and the 54-year-old Lilley, her softball instructor. Akron Municipal Court Judge Annalisa S. Williams imposed the sentence and the conditions Wednesday.

Court records show that Lilley will not be allowed to coach softball or baseball for females under 18 years old, must complete sexual offender treatment and must have no contact with the family. Akron News Now said Lilley was fined $1,000, Ohio.com -- which lists Lilley as a copy editor -- said the fine was $1,179 but the court records under "fine" say "$0."

The incident happened April 17. Springfield Township police filed the original, inappropriate touching charges.

Toms Moore & Giffen at it again

BJ Alums received this email from Beacon Journal newsroom retiree Tom Moore, in his seventh year of publishing a daily newspaper for the Roy Hobbs Baseball World Series for older players run by former BJ sports editor Tom Giffen in Fort Myers, Florida:

Here's a little something about the series.

Another year -- the 22th for the Rob Hobbs World Series in Ft. Myers. Our theme this year for the amateur baseball tournament is, what else, but Catch 22.

(In a different photo) former BJ Sports Editor Tom Giffen takes a shot of a father and son who play in the series.

And former BJ staffer Tom Moore will do the interview for "The Inside Pitch," the newsletter published most days with game results and other good stuff to keep the 191 baseball teams informed.

In the photo at right, Tom is with Akron brothers Larnie and John Martin.

The series is divided into age divisions---youngest group is 28-plus and oldest is 70-plus.

Several teams from Akron are taking part and they usually make a good showing.

And Moore says snapping a picture of Giffen snapping a picture is just fair play, since Giffen did the same to Moore last year.

Got a photo of me and my "bodyguards" coming. They are (brothers) Larnie and John Martin from Akron, umpires and members of the Hobbs staff. Real nice guys.

Giffen, now 61, in 1990 formed a four-team league of adult men playing out of Akron. The next year the league grew to 11 teams and joined Roy Hobbs Baseball, which was owned by Ron Monks of California. In 1992 Monks sold Roy Hobbs Baseball to Giffen and his wife, Ellen.

For several years, Giffen ran Roy Hobbs Baseball out of his basement and continued to work at the Beacon Journal. In the mid-1990s, as the organization brought in more and more teams, Giffen resigned from the BJ to work full time at his business.

Roy Hobbs is the fictional hero of Bernard Malamud's novel, “The Natural,” and the movie starring Robert Redford as Hobbs.

Richmond, Virginia native Tom Moore, 79, interviews, photographs and publishes a daily newspaper for the tournament that draws teams from around the United States, Germany and Russia. Tom and wife Dot have four children, including three daughters who were copygirls at the BJ.

Click on the headline for dozens of photos of Tom Moore and Tom Giffen at the Roy Hobbs Baseball World Series complex in Fort Myers, Florida. The games are played on the same Lee County fields that the Boston Red Sox use for their spring training.

Newspapers now provide only 20 percent of AP revenue

Revenues from newspapers have fallen by about one-third at the Associated Press since 2008, from $220 million a year to about $140 million in 2010, and now make up just over 20 percent of the organization's total revenue.

CEO and President Tom Curley revealed the decline when I asked him last week about the cooperative's business relationship with its member-owners. He added two more financial nuggets:

* "We expect it will continue to drop another $5 to $7 million a year" in 2011 and beyond.
* The AP loses money on services to newspapers and effectively subsidizes those offerings with more profitable lines of business. But Curley said he was uncomfortable with continuing that imbalance indefinitely.

Though Curley and AP spokesman Paul Colford did not provide numbers for other business segments, Curley said growth areas include commercial photos, software businesses and AP's international television news feeds, about to receive a $30 million upgrade to digital.

Online news has been a positive, he added and broadcast is stable. Besides covering news abroad, the AP has also has a large international client base.

The 160-year-old collective remains fully owned by its 1,500 newspaper members. Its board is dominated by top newspaper executives (including Poynter chairman and St. Petersburg Times CEO Paul Tash) with a couple of broadcast representatives.

[Source: Rich Edmonds Biz Blog

Click on the headline to read the full story.

Medicare changes for 2011

Starting Jan. 1, Medicare pays for an annual physical exam, Pap lab test, Pap test speciment collection and pelvic and breast exams, digital rectal exam and PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test. Medicare, however, pays only 80% of the charge for the doctor visit.

If you’re part of a Medicare Advantage Plan, such as the Aetna plan that the Beacon Journal uses for its employees, you don’t need and can’t be sold a Medigap policy.

Medicare pays for your flu shot each year. It costs you nothing. So get one!

Medicare will pay some of your prescription drugs costs if:

a. You’re single with income less than $16,245 and resources less than $12,510.
b. You’re married, living with a spouse and your income is less than $21,855 and resources less than $25,010.

Resources include your checking and savings accounts, stocks and bonds but not your home, car, burial plot, up to $1,500 per person for burial expenses or life insurance policies.

Aetna and other Medicare Advantage plans can’t charge more for chemotherapy, dialysis services and skilled nursing care than the government’s competing Original Medicare plan charges.

After you hit the drugs donut hole, you’ll pay 50% of the cost of brand-name drugs and get a 7% discount on generic drugs. The $250 rebate you got in 2010 will continue in 2011. The donut hole will be $2,840, no matter who paid for the drugs. But the formula switches to your out-of-pocket costs to get to $4,550, when you pay no more than 5% of the drug’s cost. People rarely get out of the donut hole. By 2020, unless the makeup of Congress and the White House changes, there’ll be no donut hole.

There will be no Cost of Living increase in your Social Security check, and no increase in your Medicare Part B Premium deduction from your monthly check. If you’re paying $96.40 or $110.50 it will stay the same. Individuals whose income is at least $85,000 or married couples whose income is at least $170,000 pay more for their premiums.

Obamacare freezes 2011 payment rates for Medicare Advantage plans, such as the Aetna MA that the BJ uses, at the 2010 payment levels, which shoots down the BJ’s complaint that it has to pay more as a reason to further dilute retirees’ health care coverage.

The BJ promised more than three weeks ago that it would send an Aetna kit with details on the changes for 2011 in two or three weeks. I haven’t gotten mine yet. Click on the headline to see the story about the BJ’s letter.

Former Record-Courier news editor dies

Former Record-Courier and Hudson's North Summit Times news editor Edward J. Glassner, 75, of Kent died Friday. The Akron native attended Akron St. Mary's High School, was graduated from Cleveland Cathedral Latin High School. He attended Marquette University before graduating from Kent State, where he was editor of the Daily Kent Stater and Chestnut Burr. He once was a copy boy and photographer for the Cleveland Press and the Falls News.

He was involved with United Way of Summit County and FEMA and originated Wilkuma, a guide for visitors and newcomers to the Kent area.

He is survived by his wife, Diane Roberts Glassner, children and grandchildren.

Click on the headline for his obituary in the Beacon Journal.
[Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, OH, Monday, October 25, 2010, page B5, col. 5]

Circulation decine is slowing

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. newspaper circulation declines slowed in the six months through September after the New York Times, USA Today and Los Angeles Times lost fewer readers at their paid print dailies.

Daily average circulation for 635 newspapers fell 5 percent compared with a year earlier, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations data released today. It dropped 8.7 percent in the period through March.

News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal, including online subscribers, increased circulation by 1.8 percent. New York Times Co.’s namesake newspaper cut the print readership decline to 5.5 percent from 8.5 percent in the prior six-month period.

Gannett Co.’s USA Today lost 3.7 percent of its daily circulation, compared with a 14 percent, and Tribune Co.’s Los Angeles Times pared the fall to 8.7 percent from 15 percent. Rounding out the top 5 newspapers by average circulation, Washington Post Co.’s namesake daily slowed the drop to 6.4 percent from 13 percent.

--Editors: Peter Elstrom, Ville Heiskanen

Poe production set for Massillon Oct. 31

Tom Stephan, Alex J. Nine and Sara Showman

The Largely Literary Theater Company’s The Tell-Tale Play, an acclaimed two-act collection of poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe, will be staged for the first time at Massillon’s Historic Lions Lincoln Theatre at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 31.

Tickets, available at the door, are $8 for adults and $6 for students. For information, call (330) 832-0717. The theater is located at 156 Lincoln Way E in downtown Massillon.

“It’s an ideal way to celebrate the Halloween season and Poe,’’ said Mark Dawidziak, artistic director and co-founder of the Largely Literary Theater Company.

Designed for high school students and older, the play features three popular area actors – Tom Stephan, Sara Showman and Alex J. Nine. They interpret Poe’s works, telling the audience along the way about the writer’s short but eventful life and career.
Perhaps best known for its acclaimed three-person version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the Largely Literary Theater Company specializes in faithful adaptations of great literary works. Its dual mission is to promote interest in literature and live theater.

Three of Poe’s classic short stories are presented in The Tell-Tale Play: “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Masque of the Red Death.” Also included are three of his major poems: “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee” and “The Bells.

The Largely Literary Theater Company was founded by former BJ staffer Mark Dawidziak and Showman in late 2001. For bookings and information, contact Dawidziak and Showman at the Largely Literary Theater Company: 330-923-8350 or at hlgrouch@sbcglobal.net

Chris Harte advising group seeking to buy Boston Globe

Former Beacon Journal publisher Chris Harte is among the top newspaper advisers to a Massachusetts businessman who intends to try to buy the Boston Globe.

Harte, also former publisher of the Minneapolis Star Tribute and Portland (Maine) Press Herald, has been advising Aaron Kushner, an Internet entrepreneur who is developing plans to make an offer to buy the Globe from the New York Times, its owner since 1993.

“Aaron has some ideas that are brand new to the industry and have a huge amount of potential,’’ Harte said in a Globe article today. “I was skeptical when I met with him and some of his investors, but these are people that can easily make this happen.’’

Click on the headline to read the full article.

Simmons replaces Goldberg at PD

Debra Adams Simmons, managing editor of The Plain Dealer, will become the paper's new editor in November, President and Publisher Terrance C. Z. Egger announced today.

Adams Simmons will replace Susan Goldberg, who is leaving to join Bloomberg News as an executive editor.

Adams Simmons, 45, came to the Plain Dealer in September 2007. She had previously been editor of the Akron Beacon Journal for four years. Before that, she had held jobs at The Detroit Free Press, The Virginian-Pilot, The Hartford Courant and the Syracuse Herald-Journal. She had been a reporter, assignment editor, deputy managing editor, managing editor and editor.

"We will continue to build on the momentum of the past three years," Adams Simmons said. "Watchdog journalism is, and will continue to be, our most important priority."

Adams Simmons and her husband, Jonathan, live in Copley. They have two sons, Jonathan and Jacob, ages 12 and 10.

Goldberg had taken over as editor of the paper in May 2007, and was the first female editor of Ohio's largest daily newspaper. She had been editor of the San Jose Mercury-News before that, and had previously worked at newspapers including USA Today and the Detroit Free Press.

She said leaving The Plain Dealer was a difficult decision, but she was persuaded by the chance to help develop content for Bloomberg News. "In a short time, I have become deeply attached to Cleveland," Goldberg said, "both because of the work our staff has done, of which I am enormously proud, and because of the amazing people I have met inside and outside of the newsroom."

Egger called it a bittersweet day. "I'm sorry that Susan has decided to leave the paper, but I'm thrilled we have a wonderful new editor in Debra Adams Simmons, who is a first-rate journalist, strategist and leader."

[Source: Cleveland.com, the Plain Dealer online site.]