Comments on: Tough week for the Beacon-Journal

By: Sally Burnell

Sally Burnell — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:41:15 +0000

The best writers have already left the BJ in search of greener pastures – Chuck Klosterman, Michael Weinreb, Regina Brett, Terry Pluto, Andrea Louie….so who’s left? And now David Giffels, perhaps their greatest talent, who loves Akron to the core of his bones, as you can tell by his BJ columns. Slowly but surely, the BJ is bleeding to death and before long, there won’t be anything much more left of it worth reading.

I’m noticing that all of the local papers are downsizing staff, so my thoughts are, what’s going to become of tomorrow’s journalism majors? Will they end up becoming Internet bloggers instead of writing for newspapers and magazines? What’s going to become of us news Luddites who cherish the idea of sitting down each morning with our coffee and our hard copy newspapers as part of our morning ritual?

Will daily papers disappear entirely or become weeklies or bi-weeklies with very little “news” in them but the occasional local feature? I’m deeply saddened at our increasingly illiterate population who prefers to get their “news” from such sources as Fox News on TV, which is NOT “Fair and Balanced” but is the official mouthpiece for the Republican Party.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:01:13 +0000

Here's an update on ABJ and Plain-Dealer cuts from Eric Mansfield. Geez, lots of recognizable names from the ABJ. Who's left?

By: Village Green

Village Green — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:45:15 +0000

One has to wonder how long any of the print news organizations will survive. Hadn’t heard about Giffels leaving. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a BJ writer I know who is actively seeking another job. Perhaps when the last writer leaves the building, the only content will be nonsensical rants by the crowd of anonymous commenters.

Oddly, I’m in Cincinnati for the weekend, not reading the Enquirer but rather your news of my home town paper.

By: redhorse

redhorse — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:51:14 +0000

The paper has been dying, slowly, since I got here 11 years ago. The sale a few years back just accelerated the process.

This is a paper that also recently lost Pluto. Diane Evans left a long time ago. Hoffman’s decent, but he writes a column every two weeks.

The last best hope is Bob Dyer. Traffic columns and traffic court rants aren’t much of a peg to hang a franchise upon.