Big cuts in Akron

I'm told the new Akron Beacon Journal owner took over today and immediately announced there would be massive company-wide cuts including potentially dozens of positions in the newsroom. Well, welcome.

Meanwhile they've recently announced buyouts in Cleveland and Toledo is on the brink of a strike a year after Youngstown's union was busted. The economy in Ohio is in the toilet right now and all these papers are paying the price.

So happy my state kept Bush in office. Plus we've re-elected the idiot corrupt Republican governor that has brought this once mighty state into the trash with stupid tax laws that discourage growth. But I'm not trying to make it political.

 

I always forget how anti-newspaper the Republican party is. If only Gore would have won in 2000, or Kerry in 2004, then newspapers wouldn't be in the state we're in.

 

Yeah, I can remember Bush urging newsrooms to hire, hire, hire in 1999 and 2000 and then to cut, cut, cut shortly afterward.

When he said that in the debate, I jumped up and yelled: "You're wrong, Mr. Bush! Just wrong!"

 

Vinz, I hope you're just joking and knowing how you and old Goser are, you probably are just teasing the poor Ohiowriter. But in case you're not... keep in mind that this gov't has ignored the plight of the working man since day one, catering to big business, special interests (i.e., the ultra-wealthy) and oil companies. Therefore, while newspaper companies are dwindling to a handful of super-sized companies that treat newspapers like a bunch of chain restaurants, our gov't continues to bash the media while enjoying the vultures pick at the bones of an industry that's been declared dead more times than a comic book character.

And while this happens, who is paying attention to what's going on with our administration (environmental record, economic record, FUBAR situation in Iraq, ratting out our own covert agents and then blaming the newspaper reporter, still failing to hand the American people Osama's head on a platter with a fucking apple between his teeth like the pig he is, etc. etc.)? Nobody. After all, we're cutting costs and trying to find a way to make a dollar. Breaking hard news is too expensive for us these days.

 

Who is the new Akron owner? For that matter, who was the old Akron owner?

 

Their web site has links to Knight Ridder and McClatchy under about us section.

 

This is all true, sir. This Administration and its cronies are the kings of big business, and they have done much to bury the average worker in this great nation. Unfortunately, this is not the first group to blame the media at every turn, and hopefully it is the last to actively hinder it. News is still being broken, it's just that investigations have become the mandate of Time magazine and such.

A major problem is that in a time of war, the media often holds back when criticizing the President.

I just don't think the newspaper industry would be in any better shape if anyone else were in office. For it is technology and our industry's refusal to embrace it a decade ago that has caused this problem, regardless of who the politicians in charge happen to be. Media as a whole are thriving as far as information getting out there; newspapers just happen to be the way most USED to get their info. And that has more to do with Gore's invention of the Internet (snicker, snicker) than anything else.

 

Pretty soon, the PD brass will just have to ask this question over their intercom.

 

Isn't the PD a Newhouse paper? When were there buyouts there?

 

Yeah I don't remember anything about the PD slashing. ...

And do we have linkage to Akron/Toledo situations?

 

Toledo Newspaper Guild site:

www.toledoguild.org

 

I've heard no strike is imminent in Toledo, but I've heard a lot of different things during that ordeal.

The Akron paper, as you know, has been through a lot. There are a lot of talented writers on that sports staff and you'd think they'd keep that core together, but you never know.