Amy and I like the Akron Beacon-Journal. It’s obviously not the NY Times, but there’s a lot we dig about it (starting with the fact that it’s far more reasonable than the whackjob, wingnut Cincinnati Enquirer). So it’s sad to see that the ABJ is having a tough week in losing two writers who are not only two of the paper’s best, but fantastic writers who could work anywhere.
On Tuesday, the excellent Cleveland sports blog Waiting for Next Year broke the news that Brian Windhorst is leaving the ABJ to join the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. I wrote about Brian back in June, passing on the sad news that he was very ill. He has since recovered and is back at his Cavs beat for the ABJ. Not for much longer, though. The good news is that he is staying with the Cavs franchise — Brian is easily one of the best beat reporters I’ve read in any sport or city, so it’s good to have him stay close to home.
This afternoon, WKYC’s Eric Mansfield broke the news that award-winning columnist David Giffels is “taking a buyout and will begin a teaching career at the University of Akron and continue as a freelance writer.” Again, it’s great that David is staying in the area — his recent book All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House is a fantastic book and a must-read (I hope to write about it more later) — but it’s a bummer that he’ll no longer grace the pages of the ABJ.
At some point, you have to wonder how much longer the paper will survive. I’ll be interested to hear the thoughts of my fellow Akronites when you have time.
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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.
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.
Here’s an update on ABJ and Plain-Dealer cuts from Eric Mansfield. Geez, lots of recognizable names from the ABJ. Who’s left?
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.