BJ Alums

Thursday, August 08, 2019

PD and former BJ pop culture critic Mark Dawidziak’s latest book, “The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive,” is on Amazon.com.

$15.39 for the Kindle version and $29.95 for the hardcover version.

The release of Mark’s Rowman & Littlefield’s Lyons Press book coincides with the 25^th anniversary of “The Shawshank Redemption,” based on a Stephen King book. The 1994 film co-stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

It didn’t do much in the theaters but cable and home video made it one of the top-rented movies of 1995.

“Shawshank” keeps creeping up in the all-time rankings of movies.

Mark’s subtitle is “how one story keeps hope alive.”
Among the 70 interviews that Mark did for the book were with author Stephen King, director-screenwriter Frank Darabont, the film’s stars Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Clancy Brown, Bill Sadler and Jeffrey DeMunn.

Mark added:

“Everyone, from King to extras hired to play convicts, had great stories to tell. If this book is any good, it’s because everyone had great stories to tell. All the stories behind the story were wonderful. And they hopefully add up to one great story. I was having so much fun listening to these stories, I easily and happily could have done 70 more interviews.”

Mark will be discussing, signing and selling his “Shawshank” book at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 19 at the main branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library at 60 S. High Street in Akron.

Mark lives in Cuyahoga Falls with wife Sara Showman and daughter Becky. Mark and Sara founded the Largely Literary Theatre Company that performs shows based on Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens.

Mark came to the BJ from Tennessee in 1983, where his Television Editor was John Olesky, and grew up on New York City’s Long Island. Previously, Mark's career took him to the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee, the Bristol Herald Courier in Virginia, the Associated Press’ Washington bureau and Knight-Ridder Newspapers’ Washington bureau.

GateHouse/Gannett deal derailing?

GateHouse’s deal to swallow Gannett may be in trouble.

Investors don’t like it.

Shares of New Media (the GateHouse Media parent) nosedived 33% after the deal finalization was announced.

Investors don’t like paying 11.5% interest rate to borrow $1.8 billion from Apollo Global Management to finance the deal.

Click on the blue

https://nypost.com/2019/08/07/new-media-deal-to-buy-usa-today-owner-gannett-is-hanging-on-for-dear-life/ to read the article.

At stake are 266 daily newspapers in America.

Monday, August 05, 2019

GateHouse finalizes control of 266 daily newspapers in America

GateHouse Media deal to absorb Gannett has been finalized.

That means GateHouse will control 266 daily newspapers in America, including the Beacon Journal and USA Today.

That’s Gannett’s 110 plus GateHouse’s 156.

The Gannett name will remain on the papers, but GateHouse will be calling all the shots.

For the article, click on the blue https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2019/the-gatehouse-takeover-of-gannett-has-been-finalized/?fbclid=IwAR2LWMwSMWE_8ndNzY8enOpbzw7rUW4x9xOnRjYNsw36u3FUN4P8M0Z4KRU

Friday, August 02, 2019

Former BJ reporter and later legal counsel (2000-2008) Karen Chuparkoff Lefton played a major role in ripping open a secret drug database that exposed big pharma’s atrocious dumping nine million pills into a town of 392 people in Kermit, West Virginia.

University of Akron Law School graduate Karen (while a reporter at Ol’ Blue Walls) made the legal argument for the Washington Post in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that led to release of the dastardly information.

That stacked Karen against Big Pharma and Trump’s Department of Justice. No contest. As Karen said, “It was a walk in the park.”

By a woman working out of a small office in Summit Mall with her partner, Brouse McDowell. Former BJ managing editor Tim Smith, who also got his law degree while working at 44 E. Exchange Street, is an associate with the group.

Big Pharma pumped hundreds of millions of opioid pills into West Virginia, including 9 million into Kermit, which has 392 people. That would be 2,300 opioid pills for each person living in Kermit. That’s outrageous!

Two thousand cities and hundreds of lawyers are pitted against two dozen Big Pharma companies.

A trial date has been set for October 21 using Summit and Cuyahoga counties to represent all the parties involved.

WVU law professors Patrick McGinley and Suzanne Weise also are involved with the plaintiffs.

For the Washington Post article about Karen, go to

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/how-an-epic-legal-battle-brought-a-secret-drug-database-to-light/2019/08/02/3bc594ce-b3d4-11e9-951e-de024209545d_story.html?fbclid=IwAR2kQIxlDpZ-DvsXSfU68MsE0Q9Z1URFQijQd1x4Tp-uo8NmIs04PezkTkg&utm_term=.9b3983d3df03

Thursday, August 01, 2019

Abandoning daily print delivery a road to destruction?

Are newspapers speeding up their demise by abandoning daily delivery of the printed version?

That’s the fear promoted by a Nieman Lab article.

If newspapers decide that there doesn’t need to be a newspaper on your doorstep EVERY day, then will subscribers decide that they don’t need the print version at all?

This is indeed a slippery slope that could make newspapers an endangered species.

Click on the blue https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/08/newsonomics-the-daily-part-of-daily-newspapers-is-on-the-way-out-and-sooner-than-you-might-think/?fbclid=IwAR2mtmUzmnnlfNkaSUjlxdsfJwwUMdTNPZHmfo1WaIGV5AKcYzLwkfdmUuA to read the BJ Alums blog article.

Disheartening look at damage to Ohioans when newspapers decimate staffs

Policy Matters Ohio came up with an exhaustive and extensive look at the damage done to Ohioans by the decimation of newspaper staffs.

One of the contributors is Policy Matters research director Zach Schiller, a former PD reporter directed to me by former BJ bureau chief Bill Hershey. Zach and I exchanged a dozen emails as I provided him information about the decline in the BJ population over the years, beginning with the 2001 exodus that was the start of 2,000 years of BJ experience leaving 44 E. Exchange Street.

Without all those departed editors and reporters, politicians and businesses have a field day because there’s no one to guard the public from them by exposing their unethical and unsavory practices.

From 2004 to 2017 Ohio newspaper employment plummeted from 15,643 to 6,505. Newsroom jobs, which keeps the fox from attacking the citizens henhouse, fell from 2,870 in 2012 to 1,640 in 2018 … almost half left the building.

To read the entire report, click on

https://www.policymattersohio.org/research-policy/fair-economy/democracy-government/breaking-news-newspaper-closures-hurt-ohio-communities?fbclid=IwAR2tLysqKCOVPm2FoFfspGHY_4v2Drvx5Gb-awUSAUO6lULy2FRbBbXvFqE

Sunday, July 28, 2019

When Paula and I visited New Zealand in 2013 we climbed Baldwin Street in Dunedin, then billed as the steepest residential street in the world.

I was 80 years old at the time. And the oldest person on the SmarTours bus to make the climb.

I got a standing ovation upon my return to the bus.

Bob Dyer, my lunch partner for more than two decades, did a followup column to his article about steep Cadillac Hill in Akron.

The last person mentioned among the responses is me.

Bob describes me as “the youngest old person I know.”

Nothing ventured, nothing climbed.

By the way, by 2018 a street in Wales surpassed Baldwin as the steepest street in the world. So I’ve been demoted to #2 steepest street.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Ruth Ellen Smith passes away

Ruth Ellen Smith

BJ Advertising Department retiree Ruth Ellen Smith, 90, passed away Thursday, July 18.

Ruth’s obituary:

Ruth Ellen Smith, 90, passed away July 18, 2019.

She retired from the Akron Beacon Journal in the advertising department and was a member of the First Congregational Church of Akron. Ruth Ellen enjoyed playing the piano, attending symphonic concerts and traveling.

Preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Robert M. Smith; she is survived by several cousins and other relatives and friends.

The family would like to thank the staff at Brookdale Montrose at Heatherwood Hall and Brookdale Hospice.

There are no services or calling hours. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Humane Society.

Services in care of The Billow Funeral Homes and Crematory 85 N. Miller Road Akron, OH 44333

Saturday, July 20, 2019

BJ photographer Mike Cardew’s father, Richard Cardew, passed away Saturday, July 20.

Mike’s post:

“It's with a heavy heart that I say My Dad Richard Cardew passed away today in his sleep.

“Anyone who knew my Dad knows he had a wicked sense of humor and loved a good adventure.

“His family, grandchildren Emily Cardew and Melissa Cardew; his sister, my Aunt and Uncle, and my cousins Carole Forster, Glenn Forster Deb Goodlaski Dee Baehr Price and Jeff Forster will miss him dearly.”

Mike won many Ohio awards for his BJ photography. The Ohio University graduate began at Ol’ Blue Walls in 1993. He wandered into Ohio after spending his earlier life in Michigan.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Fred Griffith passes away

Fred Griffith

Fred Griffith, a West Virginia native who was a Cleveland radio and TV personality for more than a half-century, beginning in 1959 till his 2012 retirement, passed away Friday, July 19 at the age of 90.

Fred was born in Charleston, where I was a sportswriter for the Daily Mail before I left for Ohio and most of my 43-year newspaper career, including the Dayton Daily News and the BJ.

Fred joined WEWS-Channel 5’s “Morning Exchange” in 1972. And became a legend in Northeast Ohio TV.

Fred won several Emmys and was inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland Hall of Fame.

Go to https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cleveland/legendary-cleveland-television-personality-fred-griffith-dies-at-90/95-79c6e868-2809-4beb-8a40-f4289c8a9eee?fbclid=IwAR0h1Y2fIyPAq_eF64_MzIx8a0LSNBO2ienDU__Xum7MaMwBBypBsT-9Mgw for the WKYC article.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

GateHouse near swallowing Gannett

GateHouse Media, which owns the BJ, is in negotiations to absorb Gannett.

GateHouse Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Reed would have the same title in the combined company.

GateHouse’s parent company is New Media Investment Group. New Media’s market capitalization is $550 million compared to Gannett’s $900 million, but it has deep-pocketed backers.

Gannett and GateHouse are the nation’s two largest newspaper groups by circulation.

Gannett publishes USA Today.

Read the article at https://www.wsj.com/articles/gannett-is-in-advanced-talks-to-combine-with-gatehouse-media-11563480166?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1&fbclid=IwAR21L49sqVybP1wxYj3BeLClcCdNpqfdHd_uEfdZL7vfrOjbfGRK4LE63rY

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

100+ sign up for October 6 BJ Newsroom reunion . . . so far

104 have signed up so far for the BJ newsroom reunion at 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, October 6 at Wingfoot Lake State Park, 993 Goodyear Park Boulevard in Suffield. The gathering will be in the Pine Tree Shelter Lodge.

Signed up:

Susan Gippin/Bob Gippin

Jane Snow/Toru "Tony" Kawaguchi

Mitch McKenney

Ron Kuner/Rosemarie Kuner

Bill Hunter/Lucy Hunter

Bil Hershey/Marcia Hershey

Phil Canuto/Deb Canuto

George Davis/Merleen Davis

Ann Mezger/Roger Mezger

Marilynn Mastroianni/Ernie Mastroianni

Charlene Nevada/Art Krummel